Introduction
Biopiracy is a problem faced by developing countries whereby national corporations, industries and government organizations make use of their natural resources without recompensing the countries from which the resources are taken from. These developing countries are rich in biodiversity and offer potential for corporations to make money. This is why these countries are a target. These corporations exploit the naturally occurring biological or genetic material, and may place patents that restrict its future use, without paying fair compensation to the community from which it originates.
The problem that arises from this is that the communities value their biodiversity. The natural resources are of great importance to the local…show more content… This source looks into the different ways in which traditional medical information is obtained and kept in India/Asia. For example, medical information is drawn form ancient Indian systems and some is ‘stored’ throughout the generations orally and in manuscripts. The source focuses on how countries protect their traditional resources from generation to generation. There is reference to how these traditions and information is shared between neighbouring countries and of what use this information has to the various countries. This source will be used to identify the importance of traditional resources and how countries are affected in terms of their livelihood when theses resources are patented.
The information in this article is based on work from various other authors and articles making this source unreliable. The information could have been altered to satisfy the author’s point. The information is valid though, since it has been taken from encyclopedias and health books.
This article was written in 1997 and can only provide insight on issues occurring then. This is a limitation as the views on biopiracy may have changed and the procedures to go about a bio piracy case may have changed as well.
Due to the fact that this article is based on Indian traditions and methods, it is a limiting source since not all countries around the world experience the same consequences that India…show more content… This greatly harms the biodiversity of the environment and obviously enrages the locals.
Patents are designed to protect the multinational corporations and not the indigenous people from whom the knowledge is ‘stolen’ from. The local people are disadvantaged since they are not paid compensation. The locals are forced to pay royalties on the knowledge and methods they created.
Biopiracy strips communities of their wealth by transferring the rights of the environment into the hands of the patent holder. As a result, the communities must spend what little wealth they have in order to procure the rights to products which are rightfully theirs.
Another ethical issue which is evident is the fact that local people are not informed of the actions that companies take. Their indigenous knowledge is taken from without them agreeing. Companies therefore do not wait to receive an informed consent from the indigenous people. The indigenous people are manipulated by companies and corporations for the sake of