(This story originally appeared in
on May 28, 2018)
New Delhi: India is co-organising an international brainstorming session in Geneva early next month on the rampant practice of commercial exploitation of natural products by obtaining
patents without fairly compensating the communities from which these originate.
Neem, turmeric and ashvagandha from India, harungana leaves and kinkeliba shrub found in various African countries and Peruvian lucuma are some such natural products which have been misappropriated by various developed countries.
India has teamed up with Geneva-based inter-governmental organisation South Centre to organise the session in an effort to protect global traditional knowledge from reckless patenting by corporates and
biopiracy, and to strengthen
global trade norms.
Zo Indigenous Forum, a human rights-based indigenous people’s organisation in Mizoram, will participate in the session, along with native communities from Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, China, Namibia, Peru and the United States. “The idea is to build momentum on the issue of genetic resources and folklore and strengthen global laws for their protection from misappropriation,” said an official aware of the matter.
Emphasising that this is an effort in the interest of all developing countries, the official said that such like-minded members of the
World Trade Organization (
WTO) have sought mandatory disclosure of source or origin of biological resources and evidence of prior informed consent and benefit sharing from patent applicants to avoid exploitation.