Peru's Inca capital slams door shut on biopirates
Indigenous people in Peru are claiming victory today in their efforts to keep natural resources they have protected for generations out of the hands of outsiders who want to exploit them without sharing the benefits.
They are celebrating that the Regional Government of Cusco, an important biodiversity-rich region and stronghold of the former Inca Empire, has passed a law outlawing biopiracy.
The term describes the way corporations or researchers can access native species and potentially patent them or their genes for commercial gain without seeking consent from, or sharing benefits with, local people whose traditions have protected the species for centuries.
The law was published in "El Peruano", the official newspaper of the Peruvian government today (14 January).
"Worldwide, national governments and international bodies such as the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization have failed to protect indigenous people's traditional knowledge and associated genetic resources from biopirates," says Alejandro Argumedo, Director of Asociacion ANDES, a Cusco-based indigenous organisation.
"The new law enacted by the regional government of Cusco is a good example of how local governments can create the appropriate legal and institutional framework, as well as the mechanisms to implement it, to ensure that biopiracy does not prey on the creativity of indigenous peoples and local communities."
The law gives indigenous communities a legal framework to use their customary laws to develop and implement ways to protect local resources, including registers of biodiversity and protocols for granting access to it.
"Peru has long been a hot spot for biopirates seeking easy prey," says Dr Michel Pimbert, of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a long-term partner of Asociacion ANDES. "Biopiracy of traditional knowledge and associated native crops, medicinal plants and microorganisms has been common, depriving poor indigenous people and farming communities of their ancestral rights to natural resources."
"This law ensures that there is an equal playing field between the holders of traditional knowledge and associated biocultural resources and those seeking genetic resources for commercial applications," adds Pimbert.
"It strengthens community institutions and their capacity to manage access to their cultural and biological assets and to inform local authorities of any transgressions so that they can play a critical role in controlling biopiracy."
Link to full text of the new law (in Spanish) O.R. Nº048-2008-CR/GRC http://www.regioncusco.gob.pe/portal/contenido.php?id=211
Alejandro Argumedo +51 84 245021
Michel Pimbert +44 07525 069 061 (michel.pimbert@iied.org)
Most indigenous peoples and local communities around the world are unaware of the existence of national and international law that protects their traditional resource rights and how they can effectively benefit from them. Additionally, they lack the resources to demand that the state oblige all actors to abide by these norms and provide these communities with the appropriate mechanisms to exercise their conferred rights.
The Order published today was first proposed by a coalition of indigenous peoples and farmers organizations including the Federación de Comunidades Campesinas del Cusco, Federación Agraria Revolucionaria Tupac Amaru del Cusco, Asociación Regional de Productores Ecológicos (ARPEC), Asociación de Comunidades del Parque de la Papa, la Asociación ANDES, among others.