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.