From THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER #3 / September 17, 1998
BLATANT BIOPIRACY DOCUMENTED
In an open letter to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs), the Rural Advancement Fund International (RAFI) charges it has documented some 147 examples of possible biopiracy involving the misappropriation of 124 farmers' varieties from 43 countries.
RAFI declares that the patent offices of six industrialized countries are encouraging biopiracy through the granting improper monopolies. Most of the 147 claims have been made by public sector breeding institutes and most of the abuses have taken place in Australia, however, the US, New Zealand, Spain, Israel, and Italy have also accepted wrongful claims.
The 147 cases of possible biopiracy were included in a report released by RAFI (Winnipeg, Canada) and HSCA (Bairnsdale, Australia) and are described, with graphic examples, the biggest scandal in seven decades of intellectual property "protection" of plant varieties. RAFI is asking governments to review the patent and patent-like plant breeders rights claims.
RAFI and Heritage Seed Curators Australia (HSCA) currently are presenting a roster of the 147 "dubious" plant variety claims to challenge the WTO's edict that countries must grant intellectual property "protection" over living plant varieties. The WTO is presently meeting in Geneva to discuss procedures for reviewing the controversial clause in 1999. But RAFI now says "the question shouldn't be `What the WTO is going to do about plant breeders rights?' rather, it is `What are the WTO and the various intergovernmental `patent' conventions going to do about plant breeders wrongs?'"
The action call is based upon a nine month study. 80% of the 147 cases identified relate to Australian breeders; but the study also points to a widening gyre of problems in other industrialized countries. RAFI's Edward Hammond, the principal RAFI researcher on the study, says "We've put the information out there and the problems are undeniable, now it's up to governments and UN authorities to act." Bill Hankin, Executive Director of HSCA agrees, "The Australian Government is fully aware that rule violations have occurred. Already, five claims have been abandoned when breeders were confronted with the evidence."
If the plant breeders rights offices in question don't agree to an immediate investigation, the 43 countries who have been pirated may feel they have no choice but to impose a plant germplasm embargo. "The predator countries want tropical and subtropical germplasm," Hammond points out, "as regrettable as it would be, an embargo to force renegade states to behave might prove effective."
"Australia is one of the world's biggest importers of the Third World's crop germplasm," Hankin advises, "We need the world more than the world needs us. It is simply economic stupidity to be moral isolationists when we are the net beneficiaries of international good will!"
HSCA is a not-for-profit association of heritage seed curators based in Bairnsdale, Victoria. HSCA is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture around the world. RAFI is a non-profit international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. For more than twenty years, RAFI has worked on the social and economic impact of new technologies as they impact rural societies.
