Corporate ‘Biopiracy’ in Peru Threatens Indigenous Knowledge
Foreign corporations have filed over 11,000 patents for a staggering 4,400 Peruvian plant products. The production and consumption of natural Andean and Amazonian ancestral products in Peru is threatened by the [...]
Can India draw red lines to protect traditional health knowledge systems from bio piracy?
by Ritu Priya and Chris Mary Kurian The World Intellectual Property Organisation is set to debate the rights of users and beneficiaries of traditional health knowledge In fighting off attempts to [...]
Ecuador names and shames biopirates
QUITO] Developed countries top the list of nations that have pirated Ecuador’s genetic resources, a report has found. The study lists the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and South [...]
Ecuador Will Call for Bio-piracy Agreement in Geneva
The adoption of a new international agreement against bio piracy will be the proposal defended by Ecuador in a meeting organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), being [...]
65,000 people opposed to Syngenta patenting South American tomatoes
In May, a record 65,000 people from 30 countries and 32 organizations have backed the complaint issued to the European Patent Office due to the approval of a Syngenta tomato [...]
Is quinoa California farmers’ new kale?
By Geoffrey Mohan-Contact Reporter Bryce Lundberg is elated, which is saying a lot for a California farmer these days. "Hop on in," he says, wading into eight acres of ragged stalks, [...]
Helping Peru protect and benefit from its biodiversity
UNCTAD held two workshops in Peru last month to look at how the country could use the Nagoya Protocol to ensure it gets a fair share from research and commercial [...]
The successes and drawbacks of Peru´s fight against biopiracy
by Simon Wilson Cortijo In 1981 Loren Miller, a director of a natural medicine company, returned to the U.S. carrying a sample of the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca. Miller’s proposal was [...]
Maca: the latest Peruvian wonder food in danger of ‘biopiracy’
By Will Handley Chinese are accused of "biopiracy" which, if true, could decimate the Maca industry in Peru The maca root and its benefits have long been used by Peruvians. [...]
Peruvian maca exports up 109% last year
By Hillary Ojeda The main maca markets include the US, China, and Japan. Even amid the smuggling and biopiracy of the Peruvian maca root, the extremely sought after food reached [...]