Subject: GE - ASEAN VS BIOPIRACY? PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, MANILA, 17sept97 DENR CHIEF CALLS FOR ASEAN PACT VS 'BIOPIRACY' By Dona Z. Pazzibugan MEMBERS of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should unite and forge an accord aimed et protecting the region's rich biodiversity against "biopiracy" by developed nations. Philippine Environment Secretary Victor Ramos made this call in his keynote speech at the 8th Asean Senior Officials on the Environment (Asean) meeting in Plantation Bay, Lapu-Lapu City, on Sept. 8. "There are concerns that merit our common effort. Biodiversity conservation and the related issue of bioprospecting should be looked at by (Asean) with a push toward an Asean-wide protocol agreement given that we share a lot of common genetic resources," Ramos said in his speech. He made the appeal in reaction to what he deemed the "failure" of the recently concluded "Rio 5 convention" to get the cooperation of developed countries such as the United States to honor their pledge to implement and support programs on environment restoration and sustainable development. The Rio 5 convention, formally known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, was a follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. In that convention, leaders of 118 countries signed Agenda 21 calling for a global program on environmental restoration and social development while recognizing the "sovereign right of states over their natural resources, and that the authority to determine access to genetic resources rests with the national governments and subject to national legislation." Biopiracy is the term coined for the practice of multinational pharmaceutical and other research firms to take samples from a developing country's native flora and fauna, and even the healing practices and knowledge of indigenous cultural groups, for their own study on these materials' potential healing value without acknowledging the source. A number of publications said bioprospecting and biopiracy had gone unchecked in the Philippines for years, and that multinational firms had secured patents or IPRs (intellectual property rights) for the commercial distribution of medicines derived from indigenous materials. President Ramos issued on May 18 Executive Order 247 requiring any local or foreign entity intending to conduct bioprospecting to seek "prior informed consent" from cultural communities or from residents of areas where the specimens are to be collected. Bioprospectors are also required to first secure an endorsement from the Inter-agency Committee on Biological and Genetic Resources which processes applications for research agreements, and to "inform the government and affected local and indigenous cultural communities of all discoveries" arising from their bioprospecting. In the case of indigenous species, the order requires that "technology must be made available to a designated Philippine institution and can be used commercially and locally without paying to collector or principal." The Philippines is so far the only country in the nine-member Asean to issue guidelines on bioprospecting. The other members of Asean are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam and Burma. "The failure of the Rio 5 meeting to inspire greater international commitments, especially from the developed countries, to support the objectives of Agenda 21, puts more burden upon us at the regional level to implement our sustainable development efforts more fully and effectively, even on our own if need be," Ramos said.