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María Sabina was an indigenous Mazatec healer from Huautla de Jiménez, a small town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. She used psychedelic mushrooms to cure various conditions, as had been a tradition in her community for generations, even before the Colombian invasion. In the mid-20th century, American banker and ethnobotanist Robert Gordon Wasson traveled in search of Sabina. Wasson deceived the healer, stole mushroom samples, and published photos and descriptions of her healing rituals in Life magazine.
This publicity made Sabina an international phenomenon, drawing tourists and celebrities from all over the world at the height of the hippie movement. Spiritual healing traditions aroused fanfare and Western intrigue. But some foreign tourists were just looking for exotic highs. Tourists ran and screamed incoherently in Huautla, causing local chaos. As a result of foreign disrespect for sacred traditions, Sabina became a local outcast, was accused of drug use, and was arrested twice. Meanwhile, Wasson was recognized as a pioneer of the psychedelic revolution. Wasson’s subsequent visit to Mexico was secretly funded by his CIA as part of the MK-Ultra project.
This exploitation and abuse of ancient knowledge is common in today’s era of “gene rush.” In a process similar to the gold rush, colonists steal local biological treasures – indigenous medicines, seeds, and food – and bring them back to their homelands to gain wealth, glory, and fame.
“Biopiracy is the theft of traditional knowledge,” said James Hodges, co-chair of the Negotiating Committee of the United Nations Convention on Access to Genetic Resources and the Benefit-Sharing (Nagoya Protocol). “Researchers in wealthy countries access plants and animals from the Global South, often without payment or recognition of location. They came from. They then commercialize the product and make a lot of money. ”
Humans have traditionally learned to exploit genetic resources in the environment. Much of modern medicine is based on naturally occurring compounds, and modern crops come from wild ancestors. The search for useful plants like this is called “biological exploration.”
“It’s very difficult to find medically active biomolecules using brute force methods,” said Ron Barrett, a professor of anthropology at Macalester College. “Therefore, pharmaceutical companies [send people] Find medically active plants that are used by local people in a variety of environments. ”
“People found plants with properties that were useful to them, and over generations they selected seeds from the best plants and replanted them. [that’s how] We domesticated crops,” Mack geography professor Bill Moseley said in an interview. The Mac Weekly. “That’s at the heart of food security.”
The situation worsens when traditional knowledge, painstakingly collected and passed down through generations, is presented as a new “discovery” or “invention.” Traditional knowledge often dates back thousands of years and includes medical, agricultural, and technical practices and knowledge. Generations of healing, innovation, and medical knowledge have been accumulated over time and adapted to local cultures and environments. Communities developed local plant and animal species, either orally or through texts such as the Ayurvedic text, written more than 2,000 years ago, and the Neijing, a Chinese medical repository written about 5,000 years ago. imparting knowledge.
“Biopiracy [occurs when] The original owners of that knowledge receive no benefit or recognition,” said Macalester anthropology professor Arjun Guneratne. “In fact, someone may patent that knowledge so that the original owner of that knowledge cannot exploit it.”
Patents are intended to foster innovation, providing scientists and researchers with protected exclusivity for a limited period of time (usually 20 years from the filing date) to help them recover their research and development costs. However, with the rise of globalization, questionable researchers are exploiting these protections.
For example, in 2005 the French Institute for Research and Development conducted a series of interviews about traditional antimalarial therapies in French Guiana, a former French colony. Ten years later, the company applied for and was granted a patent on the use of the Quassia amara plant for use against malaria. A similar situation occurs with quinine, ayahuasca, and basmati rice.
In such cases, indigenous peoples and local communities are not only denied compensation but may also be prevented from using what was once their cultural heritage.
“Companies may go after poor farmers for patent infringement,” Moseley said. “It’s a problem for food security and it’s theft.”
However, not all hope is lost for preserving traditional knowledge. In 1995, the European Patent Office granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration intellectual property rights to use neem, a plant well known in traditional Indian medicine, as an antifungal drug. After a 10-year legal battle, the Indian government succeeded in revoking the patent.
“Free trees remain free,” activist Dr. Vandana Shiva said in an interview with France 24.
India has established the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a platform that attempts to collect and document traditional knowledge to combat biopiracy. But this is a monumental challenge that not all governments can tackle.
“This is a big problem for small countries that are victims of biopiracy. This system has evolved to protect the interests of those in power,” Guneratne said. “The legal system is run for the benefit of corporations, not for the small communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
Even in countries with initiatives like India’s TKDL, many remedies will be overlooked.
“It’s even more difficult in a society without written records,” Barrett said. “They may have long-standing oral traditions passed down from generation to generation that don’t stand the test of time in court.”
Other initiatives include the Nagoya Protocol on profit sharing. It is a United Nations treaty that aims to provide a framework for legitimizing local claims to genetic resources and traditional knowledge and giving back to local communities.
“The protocol is about fairness,” Hodges said. “It’s about fairness. Biopiracy is illegal [and] It is unethical to receive something and not give anything back. There are many financial and non-financial benefits from genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The goal is to provide benefits to support conservation and indigenous peoples. ”
As the world moves toward a more just and sustainable scientific model, it is important to critically examine what we mean by “innovation.” What is really new and what has been appropriated? Who should be included when sharing the benefits of commercial ventures? What form should this compensation take? These are the questions that will drive future intellectual property policy.
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