Battling 'biopiracy', scientists catalog the Amazon's genetic wealth | PLACE - 0 views
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In a bid to stop "biopiracy", researchers are building a giant database to catalog genetic material from the world's largest rainforest. From the rubber in car tires, to cosmetics and medicines, genetic material contained in the Amazon region has contributed to discoveries worth billions of dollars. Communities living there, however, have rarely benefited from the genetic wealth extracted from their land - a form of theft that legal experts call "biopiracy".
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"At the heart of the conservation debate is: how do you find a way for a person in the forest to get more cash in their hand right now from preserving that habitat rather than cutting it down?"
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compelling investors to pay royalties
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"The history of biopiracy runs deep in the Amazon basin," Waughray said, citing early colonialists taking rubber trees from the region to create lucrative plantations in Malaysia.
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Brazilian prosecutors launched an investigation into a California-based company earlier this year, accusing it of using genetic components of the tropical acai berry in its nutritional supplements without paying for them. Pharmaceutical companies have also used the yellow-and-green Kambo frog to create anti-inflammatory drugs without distributing benefits to local residents, Brazil's environmental enforcement agency said in 2011.
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Internationally, the Nagoya Protocol, which came into force in 2014, governs how companies and researchers should equitably share benefits from genetic material, said Valerie Normand, an official from the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.
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Critics, however, worry the project could actually make it easier for companies to steal genetic material. "This will become a one-stop shop for digital biopiracy," said Jim Thomas from the Montreal-based ETC Group, a technology watchdog. Companies may use the database of genetic codes to go prospecting to find information they need, and then slightly alter it or find another way to avoid paying royalties, he said.