Biopiracy

Critics of Biopiracy

The biopiracy narrative, critiquing the win-win scenarios championed by supporters of bioprospecting, draws on the solidarity of farmers, rural poor, and indigenous people, and suggests that the activities of scientists and pharmaceutical companies result in the plunder of the poor and the exploitation of their resources for economic gain.

Vandana Shiva, a vocal author and antibiopiracy activist, argues that biological resources should not be removed from the realm of public good to private property rights. In this view, all external attempts to patent biological resources are acts of piracy. For Shiva, the ability to patent life forms is seen as a classic case of bio-colonialism, in which the Western system of intellectual property rights and neoliberal economics jeopardizes the cultural rights and natural resource practices of local peoples.

A recent victory for opponents of biopiracy was won in 2005, when the European Patent Office revoked a patent based on the fungicidal properties of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica). Opponents to the patent argued that the neem tree's fungicidal properties have been known about and used in [Page 130]India for centuries. This case signals to researchers that they can not equate indigenous knowledge with free and public information. For those questioning the patenting of life forms based on traditional knowledge, this case presents a clear victory in the struggle of indigenous rights against global commercial interests.