Ayahuasca Patent
OPEN LETTER TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
Dear Sirs:
As you may already be aware, the Inter-American Foundation
(IAF) - a body of the the U.S. government - has decided to break
relations with our organization. In doing so, they have denied
any type of colaboration with more than one and a half million
indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin, while we are making an
effort to maintain our cultures, as well as, trying to avoid the
destruction of the largest rainforest on the planet.
The reasoning of the president of the IAF is based
the resolution adopted by the Coordinating Body for Indigenous
Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), that, in its Fifth
Congress realized in May of the past year, decided to declare
a citizen of the United States, Loren Miller, an "enemy of
indigenous people". At this time COICA prohibited his entrance
into any indigenous territory. Mr. Miller has patented in the
United States, a variety of Ayahuasca or Yage (Banisteriopsis
caapi ), which is a plant of hallucinogenic properties that is
considered sacred for the majority of the 400 indigenous groups
in the nine countries which constitute COICA.
We know well the campaign to discredit our organization
orchestrated by Miller. For him, it was not enough to patent our
sacred plant taken from the garden of an indigenous family in
Ecuador, and he is now proposing to install a laboratory to process
the plant in the same country. COICA is an organization with positive
earned prestige at the international level, not only for the defense
of indigenous rights, but also for the proposals and work to amelliorate
the life conditions of our peoples.
The drastic resolution adopted by IAF is for us one
more confirmation that this organization is serving the economic
interests of one one individual against the beliefs of hundreds
of thousands of indigenous peoples and the opinion of worldwide
respected organizations such as the WWF, the IUCN and the Amazon
Coalition. These are some of the hundreds of organizations, American
and international personalities that have written to the IAF to
express their solidarity with COICA.
The pressure exercised by the IAF to retract our
resolution adopted unanimously by ninety delegates representing
the 400 indigenous groups represented in our Congress, it is inadmissable.
As we have said, the respect of our beliefs and dignity as peoples
are worth more than any amount of help that can be given or taken
away.
COICA , once again ratifies all the points of the
resolution adopted in the Fifth Congress about the patenting of
ayahuasca, and insists in stressing that under no circumstances
and despite any pressure of national and international organizations,
COICA will not renounce its legitimate right to defend and preserve
the knowledge, practices, innovations and natural resources of
the peoples whom we represent. This right has been explicitly
recognized in the Treaty of Biological Diversity that was ratified
by more than 170 countries.
In addition to this, COICA declares that in the defense
of its rights, it will use all legal means available. The capricious
interpretation of COICA´s resolution that Mr. Miller and
other interested sectors have made, stating that our organization
threatens "the life and integrity of a United States citizen"
lacks any foundation and is only a strategy to divert the attention
of the fundamental problem, which is the immoral and illegal patenting
of our sacred plant. This is an offense which we cannot tolerate.
We believe that you the Congressmen/women, should
know the fundamental reason which allows your fellow citizens
to patent our plants and appropriate our knowledge. There is a
lack of ratification by the U.S. Congress of the Treaty of Biological
Diversity, and a lack of approval for accurate laws that impede
this known worldwide practice of "biopiracy".
For these reasons, COICA will immediately initiate
the legal process in the United States to achieve the absolute
nullity of the patent obtained by Mr. Miller. In this process
we are confident that there will be wide international solidarity
for COICA´s position, especially with the active support
of conservation, humanitarian and politcal organizations of the
United States. The personalities, politicians and public opinion
of the U.S., have on several occasions demonstrated their solidarity
with the cause of Amazonian indigenous peoples due to our contribution
to the environmental stability of the planet.
Sincerely,
Antonio Jacanimijoy, General Coordinator of COICA