Bio-pirates grab planet’s genetic treasure

Date: 09/03/06

International environment ministers will travel to Brazil this month and discuss ways of stopping "bio-pirates" plundering the third world of its supplies of natural genes.

The 188 governments meeting to discuss the 1992 UN convention on biodiversity have various environmental problems to discuss, but prominent among them is who should benefit from discoveries derived from genetic resources.

The convention itself defines genetic resources as living material containing genes "with actual or potential use or value for humanity".

Modern, industrialised parts of the world tend to have scarcer genetic resources than undeveloped areas.

Environmentalists claim that the failure to agree rules for corporations using the resources amounts to exploitation of poor regions and people.

But conclusions to be adopted by EU environment ministers tomorrow (9 March) ahead of the Brazil conference will not commit the Union to tough action.

A convention agreement "to negotiate an international regime" on access to and sharing benefits of genetic resources could, say the conclusions, be made of "binding or non-legally binding instruments".

The common EU position also holds back from suggesting a timetable for the regime, despite pressure from Spain.

Article previews the UN's Eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 8), in Curitiba, Brazil, 20 - 31 March 2006.

• Primary Source

UN Convention on Biological Diversity: COP8 and MOP3 meetings in Curitiba, March 2006 http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop8mop3/mop-03.shtml

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