Brasília – The Eighth Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Curitiba, Brazil (20 – 31 March 2006), it will treat at least two themes of great interest of indigenous people and local communities: the access and partition of benefits originating from of the use of genetic resources and protection of the so calls traditional knowledge associated to the biodiversity. The two items are important to combat one of the principal problems faced by the several countries: the bio-piracy.
The Convention about Biological Diversity (CBD) was the first international legal instrument to recognize the relevance of the knowledge, innovations and indigenous and local communities practices for the conservation and maintainable use of the biological diversity (Article 8(j) and 10c).
As result of those devices, and the organized fight of those communities representatives in the last decade, they have a considerable political space to participate and to influence the process of CBD “, detaches Bráulio Ferreira of Souza Dias, manager of the Conservation of the Biodiversity of the Ministry of the environment (MMA).
In this line, since last year, the Ministry invests in the leaders training, so that these communities can participate in the event in an effective way. Besides a spelling book, explaining how the convention works; three courses were promoted, in Curitiba, São Luís and Manaus, Brazilian capital cities.
Among the discussed themes there were historical, present time and international perspectives of CBD and of COP 8; agro biodiversity and public politics; indigenous millenarian knowledge; preservation, recovery and maintainable use of the biodiversity in indigenous lands. The Ministry of the environment is also supporting financially the trip of leaderships to the preparatory meeting of COP 8, that will happens in the end of January, in Granada, Spain.
Principal themes
Among the principal discussion points in COP 8 is the negotiation for the creation of an International Regime of Access and Partition of the Benefits of the Biodiversity. Among other rules, Brazil defends that the regime is linked, in other words, it should have rules to be accomplished obligatorily by the signatory countries and that also regulates the theme of the traditional knowledge.
The fight for the creation of this regime was born when verified that the genetic resources and the traditional knowledge associated to the biodiversity have been accessed systematically by research institutions and companies of technological development of user countries (poor in biodiversity and rich in biotechnology). Although some of the signatories countries of CBD have servant specific legislations for the theme, they have not been respected out of the national jurisdictions.
Now, as an instrument that guarantees the respect to those legislations doesnt exist, the access has been accomplished without the free consent and informed of the population that has the genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Those illegal accesses have result in requests of rights of intellectual property ( patents, registration, marks, etc) that, in general, dont distribute benefits. The international negotiations on the theme have strategic importance to Brazil that is the country of larger biodiversity and one of the great providers of genetic resources. Some estimates point that the world market of biotechnology, which uses the active beginnings and existent genetic codes in the nature, moves, a year, a total value that can surpass U $700 billion.