Amazon Rainforest Tours and Travel | Bio-piracy: The Struggle of Science vs. Commerce in the Amazon
As a commercial region, the Amazon plays an important role in the economies of the countries that share the rainforest. The governments take their role as commercial watchdog seriously, too seriously some say, having placed the timeless Amazon in the center of modern-day legal wrangling over the rainforest's bounty. For these governments, juggling science, commerce and proprietary interests is a complicated contentious task.
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Governments' concern over bio-piracy is warranted and not just because of long-ago colonial misdeeds. As recently as four decades ago, Squibb developed the lucrative ACE inhibitor, Captopril, from the venom of the Brazilian arrowhead viper. Likewise, blood samples of indigenous people of the Amazon have been obtained in the name of genetics research, originally by the U.S.-based Coriell Institute for Medical Research that sells DNA for scientific purposes.
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The government of Brazil acts swiftly and arbitrarily whenever it appears scientific inquiry may lead to exploitation, a strategy that finds its justification in the country's long history of bio-piracy. Most infamously, in the 1870s, explorer Henry Wickham single-handed torpedoed the Amazon's rubber business by smuggling rubber tree seeds home to England.
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A prime example of how such conflicting interests play out in today's litigious world is the case of Dutch primatologist Marc van Roosmalen, a naturalized citizen of Brazil, who was sentenced to a sixteen-year prison term for bio-piracy in 2007. A scientist highly acclaimed for his conservation work in the rainforest, van Roosmalen ran afoul of Brazil's government for his supposedly unauthorized research that identified five new monkey species and a new genus of tiny pygmy marmoset. International critics familiar with van Roosmalen's work, rail against his prosecution under Brazil's protectionist laws, citing his long history of research to protect the Amazon. Some scientists support van Roosmalen's work but question his tactic of naming new species after donors to fund his research, an oft-used practice in other fields, whether funding a symphony hall or sports stadium.
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Some consider the red tape of Brazil's convoluted environmental laws to be at the heart of the problem. By law, gaining approval for field research should be a ninety-day process. But with inadequate budgets, too few staff with scientific expertise and five overlapping regulatory agencies, maneuvering through the system can take substantially longer. In frustration, scientists oftentimes go ahead with their research, assuming approval will be forthcoming eventually.
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The Amazon governments have begun to work together to contend with future bio-piracy. Under the auspices of the eight-member nation Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization in 2005, the patent offices of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela signed the Rio Declaration, agreeing to work together to protect the rights to Amazon plant species for economic gain. Under the agreement, the countries will coordinate their regulatory framework to make intellectual property laws consistent and share patent information.
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Scientists in Venezuela are researching traditional medicines of the Amazon for their potential commercial use by assembling a database called Biozulua that lists plants, uses and tribes. The goal is two-fold: to pass on herbal medicine practices to future generations and to capitalize on the centuries-old knowledge for the benefit of the indigenous populations who will retain ownership of the information. Visitors on Amazon tours often have an opportunity to learn about indigenous uses of plant species. One of Southern Explorations' best tours for learning about the subject is the Peru Amazon Posada Amazonas tour.
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Whether or not efforts to protect the potential Amazonian riches are working is difficult to say. This is a subject of heated debate in the Amazon and will likely remain so.
