DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CRITICISE WIPO FOR MEETING CLASH
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) came under strong criticism from a number of developing countries for re-scheduling the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (Eighth Session) to exactly coincide with the November-session of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Discussions at the WIPO meeting will be closely linked to those at the TRIPs Council as they will address the revision of the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 10 October 2002). Developing countries have repeatedly pointed out the problems they face with overlapping meetings in WIPO and the WTO, in particular as for several of them the same representatives participate in both forums. The Group of Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) has also sent letters in the past calling meetings to not be scheduled in the same week. The WIPO Secretariat argues that the meeting had to be postponed so as to hold it back-to-back with the Working Group on Reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) on 18-22 November.
ICTSD reporting.
ILLEGAL PLANTING OF GM SOY IN BRAZIL MAY HURT AMAZON
Brazil’s rejection of genetically modified (GM) soybeans - a decision generally praised by green groups - might cause increased degradation of the Amazonian rain forests, according to some observers. "Ironically, Brazil’s choice to produce non-GM soya is resulting in huge tracks of land being cleared," said Andy Tait from the environmental group Greenpeace. William Laurance of the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute added, "soya farming really is emerging as the critical driver of Amazonian deforestation." Commercial release of GM soya in Brazil — the world’s second largest soybean producer — has been held up following a number of injunctions issued by Brazil’s Federal Court. However, GM contamination particularly in the south of the country has forced some Brazilian farmers who wish to grow non-GM beans, to continuously move north into the rain forests where industrial farming has led to increased felling of trees. The government has also made major investments in improving infrastructure through its Advance Brazil programme which Laurance has said will lead to the "peeling (of) about seven and a half thousand kilometres of highways [...] transportation projects, channelling and damming three large river systems and so on."
"Brazil non-GM soy seen threatening rain forests," REUTERS, 5 November 2002.
FARMERS ACCUSE CGIAR OF EXCESSIVE FOCUS ON ‘TECHNO-FIXES’
Hundreds of farmers from 10 countries — gathering for marches and a street conference at the annual meeting of the Consultative Group on Agriculture Research (CGIAR) held on 28 October - 1 November in Manila, Philippines — called for farmer-led and farmer-centred approaches to replace the current system of agricultural research. They claimed that the GCIAR focuses on "techno-fixes," including the use of genetically modified organisms, which farmers fear have worsened agricultural problems and make organic farming increasingly difficult if not impossible. In the "unity statement" of the Peoples’ Street Conference, farmers stressed that "the failure of the CGIAR to defend genetic diversity in the light of [genetic] contamination is disgraceful" and that "CGIAR have promoted a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to research that ignores the knowledge and experience of farmers, farming communities, and indigenous people." The farmers also demanded that patents on any form of life or intellectual property be disallowed.
"Food Scientists Face Farmer Anger, Water Warnings," ENS, 31 October 2002.
NEW GOLD RUSH IN AUSTRALIAN RAINFORESTS
In what some termed as Australia’s new “gold rush”, corporations and scientists are hunting for new drugs and products to be derived from plants found in the country’s tropical rainforests. As Selwyn Snell, CEO of BioProspect Ltd., an Australian science group, pointed out, “Australia remains the last continent to be discovered in biodiversity.” The key to the continent’s potential for these companies is that it has many biological species that are not only unnamed, but also unregistered. It is this potential that has attracted “bio-prospectors” from around the world including large pharmaceutical producers who hope to make a discovery, like a cure for cancer or HIV. Australia’s northern rainforests, mostly found in Queensland and Western Australia, have already yielded a number of new compounds for antibiotics, pesticides, and a pill that is thought may be able to prevent prostate cancer.
“Bio-prospectors seek treasure in Australia forests,” REUTERS November 5, 2002