Amazon researchers fear ‘biopiracy’ backlash

Conspiracy theories
But that doesn’t silence the cries of alarm.

“The internationalization of the Amazon goes far beyond the economic area and the occupations of lands,” Amazonas state Gov. Eduardo Braga warns. “They will take from us our flora and our fauna.”

Manaus Mayor Serafim Correa says Brazilians must “take care that we don’t allow our Amazon to be invaded.”

On the Web site “Amazon Love it or Leave It,” Gen. Luiz Gonzaga Schroeder Lessa, former chief of the Amazon Military Command, claims collectors disguised as religious or environmental groups are taking samples to be turned into medicines for which Brazilians will later have to pay them royalties. “It’s biopiracy and it goes on almost unchecked in the Amazon,” he writes.

Sarney, the congressman, says most Brazilians confuse biopiracy with things like a recent case where a Japanese company trademarked “Cupuacu,” a fruit unique to the Amazon. The trademark was revoked following protests from Brazil.

Investment priorities
Rogerio Magalhaes, an environment ministry official, acknowledges the bureaucracy is frustrating, but denies it stops researchers from doing research.

“They’re doing it but they’re doing it illegally,” he says.

The legal limbo provides little comfort to scientists like Carlos Joly, director of the Botanical Institute at the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo state.

“Right now it seems like we — the ones who are doing research — are the pirates,” said Joly. “The best way to protect Brazil’s biodiversity is to know its characteristics and potential. That’s what the country should be investing in.”

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