67
3
Scientists are interested in greater focus on and financing of their specializations. Likewise, conservationists are concerned with promoting and obtaining
funding for conservation, and pharmaceutical companies developing new medicines based on bioprospecting have an interest in getting access to biological diversity and to ensure social acceptance of their activities.
We have seen how the win-win discourse has involved each of the four groups
arguing for the importance of bioprospecting without reference to their own selfinterests. Instead, they argue that they are concerned with a win-win activity for a
good cause, such as conservation, developing new medicines and providing income
for poor countries and especially for rural poor in these countries.
Cornell University professor Thomas Eisner (1929–2011) was one of the earliest contributors to the win-win discourse on bioprospecting. He wrote enthusiastically about what he called chemical prospecting, which he believed should be
intensified. He expressed concern for the extinction of species and thereby the loss
of chemical components of great value in developing new products, such as medicines. Therefore, Eisner proposed that laboratories be set up in countries in the
Global South to chart the components and at the same time support conservation
programmes (Eisner 1989, 1991).
Furthermore, the Biodiversity Convention has played a key role for the elaboration of the win-win discourse on bioprospecting. The three goals of this convention are conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and the
fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources (United
Nations 1992, article 1). The four groups of actors behind the win-win discourse
have pointed out that bioprospecting can help attain these three goals. A key book
on bioprospecting from World Resources Institute (WRI) states that:
» Done well, biodiversity prospecting can contribute greatly to environmentally sound
development and return benefits to the custodians of genetic resources – the national
public at large, the staff of conservation units, the farmers, the forest dwellers, and
the indigenous people who maintain or tolerate the resources involved (Reid et al.
1993: 2).
Contributors to the win-win discourse has often pointed to the importance of establishing institutional frameworks in the countries in which bioprospecting takes place.
Thus, they have emphasised on putting laws and administrative apparatus in place in
order to ensure that bioprospectors in one way or another give something in return
to the source countries of biodiversity as well as to the local participants involved.
3.3 The Biopiracy Discourse
Solidarity organizations for marginalized people in the Global South have played
a key role in initiating and producing the biopiracy discourse. The most important
of these organizations are the ETC Group from North America (formerly called
the Rural Advancement Foundation International – RAFI), the Genetic Resources
Action International (GRAIN) from Europe and the Third World Network from
Asia. In this discourse, bioprospecting is regarded as exploitation carried out by
3.3 · The Biopiracy Discourse
3
Scientists are interested in greater focus on and financing of their specializations. Likewise, conservationists are concerned with promoting and obtaining
funding for conservation, and pharmaceutical companies developing new medicines based on bioprospecting have an interest in getting access to biological diversity and to ensure social acceptance of their activities.
We have seen how the win-win discourse has involved each of the four groups
arguing for the importance of bioprospecting without reference to their own selfinterests. Instead, they argue that they are concerned with a win-win activity for a
good cause, such as conservation, developing new medicines and providing income
for poor countries and especially for rural poor in these countries.
Cornell University professor Thomas Eisner (1929–2011) was one of the earliest contributors to the win-win discourse on bioprospecting. He wrote enthusiastically about what he called chemical prospecting, which he believed should be
intensified. He expressed concern for the extinction of species and thereby the loss
of chemical components of great value in developing new products, such as medicines. Therefore, Eisner proposed that laboratories be set up in countries in the
Global South to chart the components and at the same time support conservation
programmes (Eisner 1989, 1991).
Furthermore, the Biodiversity Convention has played a key role for the elaboration of the win-win discourse on bioprospecting. The three goals of this convention are conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and the
fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources (United
Nations 1992, article 1). The four groups of actors behind the win-win discourse
have pointed out that bioprospecting can help attain these three goals. A key book
on bioprospecting from World Resources Institute (WRI) states that:
» Done well, biodiversity prospecting can contribute greatly to environmentally sound
development and return benefits to the custodians of genetic resources – the national
public at large, the staff of conservation units, the farmers, the forest dwellers, and
the indigenous people who maintain or tolerate the resources involved (Reid et al.
1993: 2).
Contributors to the win-win discourse has often pointed to the importance of establishing institutional frameworks in the countries in which bioprospecting takes place.
Thus, they have emphasised on putting laws and administrative apparatus in place in
order to ensure that bioprospectors in one way or another give something in return
to the source countries of biodiversity as well as to the local participants involved.
3.3 The Biopiracy Discourse
Solidarity organizations for marginalized people in the Global South have played
a key role in initiating and producing the biopiracy discourse. The most important
of these organizations are the ETC Group from North America (formerly called
the Rural Advancement Foundation International – RAFI), the Genetic Resources
Action International (GRAIN) from Europe and the Third World Network from
Asia. In this discourse, bioprospecting is regarded as exploitation carried out by
3.3 · The Biopiracy Discourse