-------- Original Message --------
Subject: LAW TO PROTECT NATIVE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 10:03:53 -0600
From: "Julio Cesar Centeno" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "ADMAPU" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "AMAZANGA"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"Anagrama" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"ASEO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"ASHANINKA"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
IPS News Bulletin
12 January 2000
LAW TO PROTECT NATIVE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
By Abraham Lama
LIMA, Jan 12 (IPS) - The Peruvian government is drafting a law to
protect indigenous rights over their ancestral knowledge in an attempt
to prevent the history of plundering native wealth from repeating
itself, as well as controlling the international exploitation of Peru's
native plants.
Indigenous communities will be the intellectual owners of genetic
resources coming from plant species whose curative or nutritional values
form part of their ancestral knowledge, according to the text of the
legal bill.
''Peru is one of the countries with greatest biodiversity in the world
and must begin utilising the competitive advantage this implies,''
commented Jorge Caillaux, president of the Peruvian Environmental Law
Society, ''but it must protect its natural resources as well as the
rights of its population.''
''Researchers from transnational pharmaceutical firms travel throughout
the country gathering information on the native pharmacopeia, they
search for a species and take it back to their country to isolate its
components and then
produce them commercially,'' he added.
The history of plundering Peru's native knowledge and technology, as old
as the pillaging of its natural resources, began with the arrival of the
Spanish colonisers.
Nothing can be done now about genetic rights to quinine, extracted from
the 'quina' bush, nor about the potato, sweet potato, corn, rubber, or
tobacco, which long ago became part of world knowledge and industrial
use.
And perhaps nothing can be done about more recent natural products, such
as cat's-claw, a plant whose bark boost the human immune system and is,
as a result, effective in treating cancer and AIDS, and has been
patented by
laboratories in several countries as their own product.
''The story of quinine is illustrative of the plundering of indigenous
communities' ancestral knowledge: in 1636 an Incan healer cured Spanish
viceroy's wife of her recurrent malaria fevers using bark from the quina
bush,'' said Peruvian doctor Fernando Cabieses.
Excited about the results, the Count of Chich�n's wife distributed the
''Countess's powder'' to the people of Lima who suffered tertian fever.
Jesuit priests in Peru sent the remedy to Europe with the name ''Jesuits
powder,'' and soon after, cardinal Lugo dispersed the miraculous
medication under the name ''Cardinal's powder.''
''Rome in that era was the malaria capital of the world,'' affirmed
Cabieses, director of the National Institute of Traditional Medicine.
''Surrounded by marshes, its 'mal aire' (bad air) led to the disease's
name 'malaria.' The unhealthy conditions of the Vatican meant that the
seat of Christianity was nearly abandoned several times, after killing
various Popes and dozens of cardinals,'' he added.
By 1650, the mysterious remedy had become popular at the Vatican and
awakened interest in other European capitals.
In 1679, Britain's Robert Talbot had quina plants sent from Peru and
began to market the powder derivative, which in 1820, French chemists
Pelletier and Caventou perfected, isolating quinine, or ''chinchonina,''
named in honour of viceroy Chinch�n's wife.
''They honoured the countess, but nobody ever remembered the Incan
doctors who discovered its curative properties, who genetically
developed the plant and used it for many years,'' commented Cabieses.
The doctor explained that when the new law is approved, international
pharmaceutical laboratories that currently exploit Peru's bio-genetic
resources free of charge will have to pay the native communities for the
right to continue.
Among those participating in drafting the legal bill are representatives
from indigenous communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
officials from the ministries of Health, Industry, Agriculture and from
the
National Institute in Defence of Intellectual Property (Indecopi).
The bill is at the stage of receiving comments and input from native
communities and business organisations that will be involved in
overseeing implementation. The draft of the final legal text is expected
to come under debate in February.
''For the first time in the world, a government is proposing to
establish protection for the collective knowledge of indigenous peoples,
a system to regulate research, production and marketing of genetic
resources,'' said Beatriz Boza, of Indecopi.
The bill establishes regulations for access to genetic resources. If
passed, it will make Peru the third nation in the world to possess such
legislation, after the Philippines and Bolivia.
But unlike the Bolivian and Philippine laws on access to genetic
resources, the Peruvian bill recognises native communities' ownership of
the knowledge they and their ancestors have developed.
Brendan Tobin, of the non-governmental Association for the Defence of
Natural Rights, said that ''when the law is applied, the communities
will be able to grant pharmaceutical laboratories, via contracts, the
right to use certain plants whose therapeutic value they have known
about for years.''
Tobin, advisor to the jungle-dwelling Aguaruna community in its
negotiations with the transnational firm Monsanto, expressed his support
for the orientation and text of the proposed law.
According to the bill, pharmaceutical companies must earmark 0.5 percent
of their profits from native-origin products to the Indigenous People's
Development Fund, in addition to the price they agree to pay for the
right to use each product.
''The bill is an important step forward because it establishes that
money from this fund is to be managed by the indigenous people
themselves,'' said Tobin, ''Finally their rights are being
recognised.'' ______________________________
Julio C�sar Centeno, PhD
PO Box 750
Merida - Venezuela
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ciens.ula.ve/~jcenteno/
Tel/Fax: Intl+58-74-714576
Tel/Fax: Intl+58-74-713814
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