The question has been asked most frequently about researchers
seeking to develop valuable products out of non-human organisms:
Many of the compounds found in plants and animals are potentially useful
to
the pharmaceutical, food, agricultural and cosmetics industries.
Presently, the companies which
research, develop and manufacture these products reap
virtually all the rewards.
However, non-governmental organisations in developing countries
whichcontain most of the world's
remaining biodiversity but generally lack the expertise
to exploit it commercially argue that some
of the royalties should return to the species' country
of origin, and to the local people in the area
where rare species are found.
They point out that in many cases herbs have been used
as medicine and even bred by villagers for
generations before they are spirited away by foreign scientists
for research-and-development purposes.
And they resent the fact that the intellectual property
rights of multinational corporations are
zealously defended, while those of local villagers are
ignored.
''Ironically, the companies that accuse the Third World
of piracy and have created [intellectual
property rules] to stop this piracy are themselves engaged
in large-scale piracy of the biological
wealth and intellectual heritage from the Third World,"
writes Vandana Shiva, an Indian scientist and
activist.
The UN Convention on Biodiversity is eventually supposed
to standardise property rights rules for
bioprospecting, but Thailand (along with the United States)
has yet to ratify it.
Meanwhile, the call for property rights over biodiversity
leads to all sorts of complicated questions:
Who ''owns" a species found in many locations, even in
different countries? What if it is found at
sea, outside any country's exclusive economic zone? And
how can compensation be provided for past
appropriations? Botanical gardens and natural history
museums around the world are filled with
specimens taken decades, even centuries, ago.
Thais often complain about the case of the plao noi, a
plant found in Petchburi with anti-ulcer
properties that has been developed into a commercial drug
by a Japanese company. But they rarely ask
where many of their staple crops originated: corn comes
from America, as does the potato. On the other
hand, notes Sirina Teo of Singapore's Bioscience Centre,
citrus plants originated in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, the question of genetic property rights has
now spread to humans. The United States has
allowed patents to be filed on human genes, cells and
cell lines that may prove useful in fighting
diseases. Applications have already been filed for patents
on cell lines taken from Solomon Island
natives and the Hagahai people of Papua New Guinea.
Nor are indigenous people the only ones being targeted
by ''biopirates". Carlos Correa, an Argentine
academic and member of the Third World Network, reports
that a patient named Moore who checked into a hospital at the University
of California found that two of his cell lines had been patented without
his permission and licensed to private companies for research.
The patent claims even stood up in
court.
Do your genes belong to you? Perhaps you better patent them to make sure.