A famous case of biopiracy is the one of Neem Tree, in India. "Used in India for more than 4,000 years, neem is a powerful blood purifier, anti-viral agent, and immune system enhancer" (Norten, 1999).
*You can read about the Neem case in this article by Vandana Shiva, "The neem tree - a case history of biopiracy " published in Times magazine.
*More cases on biopiracy addressed by the Times can be accessed here.
*Ellen Norten's book "Neem" (1999) is also available online:
4 May 2010
Why this project?
Welcome to our website. The Pelargonium Project is a media project aimed to report on stories related to biodiversity and other linked practices e.g. biopiracy, biosafety, that have emerged in the last ten years.
The United Nations called 2010 "International Year of Biological Diversity". It will culminate in Nagoya in October for the The 10th conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
One of the topics to be discussed in Nagoya is Biopiracy, a term whose lack of neutrality needs to be challenged. It has emerged to describe the ways corporations - usually pharmaceutical companies and laboratories - allegedly claim ownership or take unfair advantage of the genetic resources and traditional resources used by indigenous communities.
Swiss NGO Berne Declaration says that
The need to get governments more involved and to build a new framework to counter biopiracy has grown stronger and the Berne Declaration and other organisations have been working on a new treaty aimed "to sustain the diversity of Life on earth" and to protect the rights of indiginous people. They call it the International biopiracy Protocol and hope that it will eventually be implemented in Nagoya.
We have been working since January 2010 on an alleged case of biopiracy in South Africa involving a plant called pelargonium. We will be updating you on our documentary temporarily called "The Pelargonium Project".
The United Nations called 2010 "International Year of Biological Diversity". It will culminate in Nagoya in October for the The 10th conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
One of the topics to be discussed in Nagoya is Biopiracy, a term whose lack of neutrality needs to be challenged. It has emerged to describe the ways corporations - usually pharmaceutical companies and laboratories - allegedly claim ownership or take unfair advantage of the genetic resources and traditional resources used by indigenous communities.
Swiss NGO Berne Declaration says that
"Most of the world’s biological capital is to be found in the countries of the Global South, yet it is the corporations in the North that benefit most from it, often in ways that are less than legal."The Berne Declaration along with other NGOs argue that most countries who signed the 1992 treaty of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Rio have not respected the agreement, and this lead to the spread of cases of biopiracy - a well-known case being the Neem Tree famously defended by Vandana Shiva.
The need to get governments more involved and to build a new framework to counter biopiracy has grown stronger and the Berne Declaration and other organisations have been working on a new treaty aimed "to sustain the diversity of Life on earth" and to protect the rights of indiginous people. They call it the International biopiracy Protocol and hope that it will eventually be implemented in Nagoya.
We have been working since January 2010 on an alleged case of biopiracy in South Africa involving a plant called pelargonium. We will be updating you on our documentary temporarily called "The Pelargonium Project".
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