Brazilian State Takes on Genetic Piracy in Amazon
7/4/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Subject: Brazilian state takes on genetic piracy in Amazon
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997
Organization: Copyright 1997 by Reuters
BRASILIA (Reuter) - A state in Brazil's Amazon region will
restrict the access of foreign scientists and researchers to the
rainforest in a bid to curb the illegal trade in species and
genetics, a lawmaker said Friday.
A law approved this week by the legislative assembly of Acre
will require non-Brazilian research groups to take out special
licenses to work in the state. They will also have to work in
association with Brazilian scientists.
Another provision in the bill seeks to guarantee payment of
royalties to native Indian communities in return for their
knowledge of the rainforest's plantlife.
``This law will stop the modern form of colonalism which has
been growing in the Amazon region for some years,'' Edvaldo
Magalhaes, a Brazilian Communist Party lawmaker who wrote the
bill, said.
Government officials have long suspected that foreign
researchers often do not register genetic discoveries made in
the Amazon and other parts of the country to avoid paying
royalties and other taxes.
Magalhaes mentioned the case of a non-governmental
organization that was recently found to have been trading
painkillers with six Indian tribes in Acre for species of plants
with medicinal properties. The plants were then sold to
international pharmaceutical companies, Magalhaes said.