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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>EU BACKS POOR
FARMERS' SEED USE<BR>February 3, 2003<BR>BBCNews<BR>Alex Kirby<BR></FONT><A
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2719129.stm"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2719129.stm</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>The European Union is proposing two far-reaching
curbs on the power of the<BR>biotechnology industry.<BR>It says companies
seeking patents should have to say where they found any<BR>natural product they
are appropriating.<BR>The EU also says poor farmers should be free to continue
their traditional<BR>practice of saving and exchanging seeds, even ones already
patented.<BR>The proposals will be discussed by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO).<BR>They are outlined by the EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, in the
magazine<BR>Our Planet, published by the United Nations Environment Programme
(Unep).<BR>The governing council of Unep is meeting at its headquarters here
from 3 to<BR>7 February, and will be discussing ways to tackle poverty and
environmental<BR>destruction by using poor countries' genetic resources to
benefit them.<BR>Traditional knowledge<BR>The problem the EU is worried about is
bio-piracy - the determination by<BR>some companies in developed countries to
find and control natural resources<BR>or traditional knowledge simply for
profit.<BR>The 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) tries to make sure
that<BR>the benefits are shared between the exploiters and the communities
from<BR>which they take their resources.<BR>But many countries think the CBD may
be fatally damaged by the Trade-Related<BR>Intellectual Property Rights
Agreement (Trips), agreed in 1995.<BR>Mr Lamy says: "Indigenous or local groups
in developing countries are right<BR>to expect to benefit materially if their
traditional knowledge is applied in<BR>ways that are shared via commercial
initiatives and trade.<BR>"The EU is working on ways of helping developing
countries rich in<BR>traditional knowledge to identify it and prevent it being
undervalued or<BR>abused."<BR>Seed exchange<BR>So the EU is contributing a paper
to be discussed by the Trips council,<BR>exploring its relationship with the
CBD.<BR>Mr Lamy says: "The key proposal in the paper is a means of
obliging<BR>applicants for patents who have used the fruits of bio-prospecting
[taking<BR>knowledge from developing countries] for new products to disclose
the<BR>geographical origin of any biological material used in biotech
inventions.<BR>"At present, there is no such obligation. The paper also supports
the idea<BR>of providing better protection for traditional knowledge, and
recognises the<BR>right of subsistence farmers in developing countries to re-use
and exchange<BR>seeds, even those covered by intellectual property rights, via
so-called<BR>farmers' exemptions.<BR>"Larger-scale commercial farmers would stay
subject to more stringent<BR>rules."<BR>If the EU's proposals are accepted, they
will mean poor farmers need no<BR>longer fear they will be forced to buy fresh
seeds annually from bio-tech<BR>companies, instead of saving some from the
previous crop.<BR>'Common good'<BR>Farmers fear they might have to buy new seeds
each year if the ones sold by<BR>the companies had been patented and modified to
make sure they produce only<BR>one harvest.<BR>Acceptance of the proposals could
mean traditional communities gaining real<BR>benefits from sharing their
knowledge and resources.<BR>Unep's executive director, Dr Klaus Toepfer, says in
Our Planet the<BR>benefit-sharing which the CBD exists to promote "is all too
often not<BR>working - or working too imperfectly.<BR>"Sadly the genetic
resources of one country or community are often treated<BR>as a public common
good, owned by nobody, free for all, without property<BR>rights."<BR>It looks
likely that Unep will come out strongly in favour of the sort of<BR>approach Mr
Lamy has outlined.<BR>Whether the WTO will agree to do so is another story,
though - and so is the<BR>willingness of some bio-prospectors to honour any
agreement that may be<BR>reached.</FONT><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>