Bioprospecting and its discontents: Indigenous resistances as legitimate politics

Alternatives

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 259-282

  Takeshita, Chikako ^a  

^a VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 24944476709     PISSN: 03043754     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030437540102600302     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. For more discussion on biopiracy, see Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (Boston: South End Press, 1997);
2. see also the websites of the following organizations for critical perspective on bioprospecting: Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), www. rafi.org; and www.latinsynergy.org/bioprospecting; Genetic Resources Action International (GRAINS), www.grain.org/index; article by Janet Bell, "Biopiracy's Latest Disguise," Seedling (1996), at www.grain.org/publications/ seedling; Global Exchange, www.globalexchange.org.
3. On the concept of discourse and power, see Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1979);
4. Michel Foucault, idem, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-77 (New York: Pantheon, 1977).
5. Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1995), p. 204. The concept of the semiotic conquest of nature, people, and knowledge will be elaborated throughout the main section of the article.
6. Article 15.1 of CBD states, "Recognizing the sovereign rights of States over their natural resources, the authority to determine access to genetic resources rests with the national governments and is subject to national legislation." Article 15.7 states, "Each Contracting Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures . . . with the aim of sharing in a fair and equitable way the results of research and development and the benefits arising from the commercial and other utilization of genetic resources with the Contracting Party providing such resources. Such sharing shall be upon mutually agreed terms."
7. CBD article 8(j) states, "Each Contracting Party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices."
8. An optimistic viewpoint is expressed in, for instance, Joseph T. Baker et al., "Natural Product Drug Discovery and Development: New Perspectives on International Collaboration," Journal of Natural Products 58, no. 9 (1995): 1331: "Fortunately, the times and attitudes are changing, and many organizations and companies as well as governments, have become more enlightened and responsible citizens of the world community. Few members of corporate management, at least in the pharmaceutical industry, would disagree with the fundamental concept of a nation's sovereignty over its own natural resources. The acquisition of biological samples for investigation is frequently viewed in the same way as the acquisition of any other commodity; some form of significant compensation is required."
9. Baker, note 6.
10. Interview with Antonio Pérez Méndez, chief of COMPITCH, and Ryan Zinn, of Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org/education/ speakers/AntonioPerezMendez), April 24, 2001.
11. "Biopiracy Project in Chiapas, Mexico Denounced by Mayan Indigenous Groups - University of Georgia Refuses to Halt Project": www. rafi.org.
12. University of Georgia: www.guallart.dac.uga.edu.
13. RAFI, note 1: "Stop Biopiracy in Mexico!: Indigenous Peoples Organization from Chiapas Demand Immediate Moratorium: Mexican Government Says No to Bioprospecting Permits" (October 2000).
14. For more discussion on the discursive construction of "biodiversity," see Arturo Escobar, "Whose Knowledge, Whose Nature? Biodiversity, Conservation, and the Political Ecology of Social Movements," Journal of Political Ecology 5 (1998): 53-82.
15. Journal of Political Ecology Ibid., p. 57.
16. Martin O'Connor, "On the Misadventures of Capitalist Nature," Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 4, no. 3 (1993).
17. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism Ibid., p. 8.
18. Martin O'Connor draws ideas from James O'Conner, "Capitalism, Nature, Socialism: A Theoretical Introduction," Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 1 (Fall 1988).
19. Jack Kloppenburg Jr., "Biopiracy, Witchery, and the Fables of Ecoliberalism," Peace Review 12, no. 4: 509-516, esp. 510.
20. International Cooperative Diversity Group, "Request for Application: TW-98-001," NIH Guide 26, no. 27 (1997).
21. NIH Guide 26, no. 27 (1997). Ibid.
22. Escobar, note 3, p. 204.
23. For a detailed discussion on indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights, see Thomas Greaves, ed., Intellectual Property Rights for Indigenous Peoples: A Source Book (Oklahoma City: Society for Applied Anthropology, 1994);
24. and Stephen B. Brush and Doreen Stabinsky, eds., Valuing Local Knowledge: Indigenous People and Intellectual Property Rights (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1996).
25. Walter V. Reid et al., eds., Biodiversity Prospecting: Using Genetic Resources for Sustainable Development (New York: World Resources Institute, 1993).
26. Stephen B. Brush, "Whose Knowledge, Whose Genes, Whose Rights?" in Brush and Stabinsky, note 20, p. 10.
27. Various authors comment on the difficulty of defining equitability in passing; for instance, Sarah Laird writes, "Comprehensive policy for compensating communities for intellectual property would be difficult to achieve (and probably unworkable)." Sarah A. Laird, "Contracts for Biodiversity Prospecting," in Reid, note 21, p. 122.
28. Brush, note 22, p. 13.
29. Escobar, note 3.
30. For a full discussion, see Escobar, ibid.
31. L. P. Breckenridge, "Protection of Biological and Cultural Diversity: Emerging Recognition of Local Community Rights in Ecosystems Under International Environmental Law," Tennessee Law Review 59, no. 4 (1992).
32. The original report that moved the notion of sustainable development into the mainstream discourse is World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (New York: Oxford UP, 1987).
33. For critical assessments of sustainable development, see also, Escobar, note 3; Wolfgang Sachs, "Global Ecology and the Shadow of 'Development,'" in Wolfgang Sachs, ed., Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict (London: Zed, 1993);
34. Vandana Shiva, "The Greening of the Global Reach," in Sachs, Global Ecology;
35. Shiv Visvanathan, "Mrs. Brundtland's Disenchanted Cosmos," Alternatives 16, no. 3 (1991).
36. Stephen R. King, "The Source of Our Cures," Cultural Survival Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1991): 21.
37. An example of a Western NGO assuming leadership and disallowing Samoan indigenous tribe leaders to decide how environmental conservation should be carried out is described in Paul Alan Cox and Thomas Elmqvist, "Ecocolonialism and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Village Controlled Rainforest Preserves in Samoa," Pacific Conservation Biology 1 (1993).
38. Stephan R. King, Thomas J. Carlson, and Katy Moran, "Biological Diversity, Indigenous Knowledge, Drug Discovery, and Intellectual Property Righs," in Brush and Stabinsky, note 20.
39. Ethnobotanists and ethnopharmacologists today conduct research around the world on indigenous medicinal plants and, in general, they are strong advocates of the fair treatment of the people who share knowledge with the researchers. A particularly noted ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes, pioneered the study and educated a number of followers. He worked in the Amazon for decades as a participatory observer and botanist, studying the use of hallucinogens as well as broadly researching the plant species in the tropical forest. His students include Mark Plotkin (Amazon), Michael Balick (Belize), and Paul Alan Cox (Samoa). Other researchers of whom I am aware include (to name but a few) Elain Elisabetsky (Brazil), Maurice Iwu (Africa), Robin Taylor (Nepal), and Stephen King, of Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc..
40. Michael Balick and Paul Alan Cox, Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany (New York: Scientific American Library, 1996).
41. Paul Alan Cox and Michael Balick, "The Ethnobotanical Approach to Drug Discovery," Scientific American (June 1994).
42. A popular account of ethnobotany can be found in Mark J. Plotkin, Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Seraches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest (New York: Penguin, 1993).
43. The cultural aspect of Polynesian medicine is documented by Paul Alan Cox, "Polynesian Herbal Medicine," in Paul Alan Cox and Sandra Anne Banak, eds., Islands, Plants, and Polynesians; An Introduction to Polynesian Ethnobotany (Portland, Ore.: Discorides Press, 1991); Balick and Cox's introduction to ethnobotany for a general audience (note 33) also addresses cultural aspects.
44. Norman R. Fransworth, "Ethnopharmacology and Drug Development," in Ethnobotany and the Search for New Drugs, Ciba Foundation Symposium (New York: Wiley, 1994).
45. The publishing dilemmas of ethnobotanical research are elaborated in Kelly Bannister and Katherine Barrett, "Challenging the Status Quo in Ethnobotany," Cultural Survival Quarterly (winter 2001): 10-13.
46. Méndez, note 8.
47. Vandan Shiva, "North-South Conflicts in Intellectual Property Rights," Peace Review 12, no. 4 (December 2000): 501-508.
48. See note 20.
49. I expressed a similar viewpoint in Takeshita, "Bioprospecting and Indigenous Peoples' Resistances," in Peace Review 12, no. 4 (December 2000): 555-562.
50. Jeff Schweitzer et al., "Summary of the Workshop on Drug Development, Biological Diversity, and Economic Growth," Journal of the National Cancer Institute 83 (1991): 1294-1298.
51. Joshua Rosenthal, "Equitable Sharing of Biodiversity Benefits: Agreements on Genetic Resources," paper presented at the 1996 Cairns Conference, "Investing in Biological Diversity."
52. Katy Moran, "Biocultural Diversity Conservation Through the Healing Forest Conservancy," in Greaves, note 20; King, Carlson, and Moran, note 31.
53. Online at www.purefood.org/patent/amazon.cfm.
54. Announced by COICA (the Co-ordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin): www.biopark.org/biopirach1.
55. Third World Network: www.twnside.org.sg/title/bans.
56. Ibid.
57. Joan Martinez Alier, "Merchandising Biodiversity," Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 7, no. 1 (1996): 37-54.
58. Escobar, note 12, p. 61.
59. Escobar, note 3.
60. Ibid., p. 171.