The
EU is proposing new rules that will force biotech companies to say where they found plants or genes they use to develop new crop varieties. These rules would also permit farmers in poor countries to
keep + swap patented seeds.
The problem the EU is worried about is
bio-piracy - the determination by some companies in developed countries to find and control natural resources or traditional knowledge simply for profit. The 1993
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) tries to make sure that the
benefits are shared between the
exploiters and the
communities from which they take their resources.
But many countries think the
CBD may be fatally damaged by the
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (Trips), agreed in 1995 by the
WTO.
On a related note the governing council of
UNEP is also meeting at its headquarters from 3 - 7 February, and will be discussing ways to
tackle poverty + environmental destruction by using poor countries' genetic resources to benefit them.