Privatising the Means for Survival:
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TRIPS obligationsTRIPS obligations for member countries of the WTO to introduce intellectual property rights over plant varieties would intensify the threat to farm saved seed. Although some African countries are adopting innovative approaches towards meeting this requirement, fifteen francophone states forming the African Organisation of Intellectual Property (OAPI) signed an agreement last year updating their common IPR law. Aside from patents, copyrights and trademarks, this agreement - the revised Bangui Agreement - contains a plant variety protection scheme that is almost carbon-copied from the highly restrictive Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention of 1991.25,26 It explicitly prohibits farmers from saving seeds that are registered under the PVP system in the case of forestry species, fruits and ornamentalless governments permit specific exemptions. The most likely beneficiaries of the scheme - European and US seed companies - will get exclusive monopoly rights over new varieties and African farmers will have to pay an intellectual property 'tax' to use them. Only one country, Cameroon, has ratified the treaty so far and it did so with no parliamentary or civil discussion. In fact, numerous farmers' organisations, scientists and NGOs in different parts of francophone Africa are concerned about the impact of the new law on biodiversity, agricultural sustainability and community rights. Some view it as a typical case of legislation being imposed from outside, with no participation of people related to development, agriculture, or the environment. With the rights of some 20 million farmers affected it would seem that for its proponents, no sacrifice is too great in the pursuit of a globalised Africa. |
Africa's role in the biotechnology industry has been overwhelmingly as a supplier of raw materials used by research institutions and transnational corporations in the West. However, the increasing rejection of genetically engineered products by Northern consumers has accelerated the vigorous promotion of their use and development in Africa, and the US is desperate to find new markets for its $60 billion agricultural industry.
Biotechnology is being aggressively pushed in Africa under the rhetoric of "counter[ing] famine, environmental degradation, and poverty".27 The recent Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - which ensures the creation of a favourable investment climate for US companies to invest in Africa, including the withdrawal of what they term 'trade barriers' that protect local agriculture - will surely form part of this push for biotechnology. Under AGOA, Clinton's 'Partnership for Growth and Opportunity for Africa' is a scientific exchange programme to enhance crop biotechnology research in Sub-Saharan Africa and promote general "awareness for the benefits of biotechnology for developing nations".28
In Algiers, an African Agency for Biotechnology has recently been established to help develop biotechnology across the continent.29 In Kenya, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech (ISAAB) aims to "facilitate the transfer of biotechnology to developing countries for the primary benefit of the rural poor and small scale farmers".30 In South Africa, Monsanto, Delta and Pine Lands, AgrEvo, Novartis, Pioneer Hi-Bred, as well as several research institutions and producers, have formed a major consortium called Africa-Bio to "provide one strong voice for lobbying government on biotechnology and ensuring that unjustified trade barriers are not established which restrict its members".31
The potential impact on Africa's food security and agriculture is immense. Although the need to improve African food security and agricultural productivity is a concern shared by all, the problem is not insufficient food, but rather its distribution and access, which includes the struggles of poor farmers to obtain credit, lack of storage facilities and inadequate infrastructure.32 Twenty-four representatives from twenty African countries and thirty community, environmental and farmer organisations attending a United Nations meeting in August 1998 wrote a strongly worded rejection of gene biotechnology, in a joint statement entitled 'Let the Harvest Continue', saying that it served only Northern corporate interests and was inappropriate to African needs.
In reality, the large majority of field trials and commercial releases of genetically engineered crops have been for herbicide and pest resistant crops rather than for developments that could make a real impact on African food production, such as improvements in nitrogen fixation, or drought and viral resistance. Industry places emphasis on high volume crops that offer most opportunities for export sales, rather than staple food crops commonly used by Africans, such as sorghum or millets. In South Africa, where 165 field trials and 5 commercial releases of GE crops have been approved over the past few years, over 90% of applications for transgenic crop testing were for insect and herbicide resistant strains. The former are largely focused on crops engineered with the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt, a toxin which kills insects which feed on it, but which pests develop resistance to very quickly. The latter are engineered to be resistant to the corporation's own brand of herbicide, so that the farmer is forced to buy the seed and herbicide as a package. Seventy per cent of these applications were received from transnational 'gene giants', including Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, AgrEvo, Delta and Pine Land, Novartis and DuPont.
Moreover, most African countries do not have basic facilities for the simplest of tissue culture methods, let alone for GE techniques. Those countries which are developing or applying modern biotechnology - South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe - do so without capacities for risk assessment and management.33 Although transgenic crops have been released in Morocco, Zimbabwe, Egypt and South Africa, no environmental impact assessments have been undertaken, nor appraisal made of the need and desirability for the crop. This is despite recent findings that illuminate the potential health and ecological risks of biotechnology, and concerns about the impact of genetic engineering on Africa's biodiversity.34
Far from being the panacea for Africa, genetic engineering brings with it a host of socio-economic and environmental problems for the continent. Biotechnology could destroy the livelihoods of Africa's small farmers. The International Labour Organisation estimates the impact of genetic engineering could result in employment losses of up to 50% in developing countries.35 Genetic engineering techniques could make it possible for corporations to produce crops that currently grow exclusively in the tropics, in the laboratory or in temperate zones. For example some 70, 000 Madagascan vanilla-growing farmers could be threatened through the laboratory production of vanilla aroma.36 In addition, higher yields from genetically engineered cocoa varieties for large commercial growers could reduce prices and jeopardise smallholder markets of the crop in West Africa. The industrial manufacture of the sweetener thaumatin - derived from a West African plant - threatens the livelihoods of thousands of people collecting the resource from the wild in Côte d'Ivoire and other West African countries.
Commercialisation of the so-called Terminator Technology, designed to prevent seed reproduction and thus assure repeated sales, as well as other coercive technologies that enforce dependency on seed companies, would have untold effects on the millions of small-scale farmers throughout Africa that depend on replanting farm-saved seeds. These farmers simply do not have the money to buy seed anew each year. Patent applications for Terminator Technology in up to 90 developing countries further fuel these concerns. Despite public commitments from Monsanto and AstraZeneca not to commercialise Terminator Technology, such promises have been short lived. In 1999 AstraZeneca conducted its first field trial on seed sterilisation technology in the United Kingdom, and Terminator is now on the ‘fast track’ to commercialisation.37
The emphasis for agribusiness will always be on products that generate sales large enough to recoup and generate profits, while it is people and the environment that will bear the risks and costs genetic engineering in agriculture poses. It is contradictory to have the priorities of profit controlling development priorities of fundamental needs like food and healthcare. Food security, human development and environmental sustainability simply do not factor in this value system.
A similar story is unfolding for Africa's healthcare. Privatisation, and the distortion of intellectual property and trade measures are being pursued at the expense of meeting the basic needs of the majority of the population. As with agriculture, two systems of medicine co-exist in Africa, one based on traditional medicine, the other on western approaches to healthcare and the use of pharmaceutical products. Western medicine has dominated in most national health systems, but many countries are beginning to integrate traditional medicine into their official healthcare programmes.38
The traditional medicine system uses biodiversity as an integral part of a spiritual healing process, environmental ethic and ancestral belief system that is uniquely African. Knowledge and observations are handed down from one generation to another, resulting in a health system that is generally shared across ethnic and cultural lines, but that is also continuously changing and strongly influenced by social, economic and political factors.39
Traditional medicine is cheaper and more readily available than Western medicine: in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a traditional doctor for every 100 to 1,000 people. The ratio of modern Western-style doctors is typically 1:10,000-100,000.40 For the estimated 70-80%of African people, both rural and urban, who rely on traditional medicine and the variety of plants and animals it is based on, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is vital.
Many species used for herbal medicine are collected from the wild. In Africa, medicinal plants are often harvested faster than they can grow to supply the demand, and an increasing number are becoming scarce and vulnerable. Conservation is critical not only to protect biodiversity, but also to meet the health needs of the continent. With markets in the US and Europe for African herbal products such as the bark of Prunus africana, used to treat men's prostitis growing at 10% per annum, added to rapid population growth in Africa, pressure on these resources will only increase.
Most of the top 150 plant-derived prescription drugs correlate with traditional medical knowledge from communities around the world.41 Exploitation of traditional knowledge by the powerful players in the global economy, using new technologies and with their profits protected by patent laws, is big business today. Although Africa has yet to yield a 'block-buster' drug, traditional African knowledge has been used to identify and develop numerous commercial products, with medical, cosmetic, food or agricultural value. In many instances these have been patented by researchers or companies in industrialised countries with no regard for the original holders of the knowledge or the technology. (See Table 1, page 9).
Patenting causes problems for both the traditional and modern systems of health care. Not only does it permit piracy of traditional medicine, it also makes the herbal drugs less accessible, for example, by creating scarcity of Prunus africanus used to treat prostitis. It also monopolises the market of modern drugs and keeps them artificially expensive, putting the modern health care system out of reach of most poor people.
The great irony, therefore, is that the modern drugs obtained from African traditional medicine are unlikely to assist with the health crises that plague the region. The same corporations that dominate in the agrochemical and seed industries are increasingly also merging with the pharmaceutical industry. Within five years, they may own 75% of pharmaceutical companies worldwide. At an estimated $300 million to develop and introduce a new drug, they are clearly focused on commodities for wealthy Western markets - anti-obesity drugs, anti-depressants, cardiotonics and cancer treatments - rather than on medicines that could transform the lives of millions of Africans suffering from malaria, tuberculosis and malnutrition. On average, Africans spend less than $10 per person per year on health care, and their debt-strapped governments are unable or unwilling to subsidise adequate medical treatment. Even those drugs that are appropriate - such as AIDS drugs - are prohibitively expensive for most developing countries. (See box).
The TRIPS agreement will exacerbate the lack of access, by further increasing the price of drugs and the concentration of research and development in industrialised countries. In addition, the current revision and expansion of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) will force countries to open up their health services to foreign commercial and transnational corporations. Privatisation and foreign ownership will have serious implications for the majority of people in the world who simply cannot afford to pay for health services.
| Species | Patent number and owner | Use and benefit-sharing |
|---|---|---|
| Forskolin (Coleus forskohlii) | US 4,724,238; EP 0265,810; IN 162,171; IN 147,030; IN 143,875 held by Hoechst (DE) | Traditionally used in medicine throughout Africa, India and Brazil. Patent applies to the use of Forskolin's anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. |
| Combretastatin A4, isolated from the Cape Bushwillow (Combretum caffrum) | US 4,996,237; WO 9405682 held by University of Arizona (US) and four Italian inventors. | Several Combretum species are used in traditional African and Indian medicine. Patent refers to the use of the compound in the treatment of lymphocytic leukaemia and colon cancer, and to methods to extract and isolate combretastatin. OXiGENE has an option to acquire an exclusive worldwide royalty-bearing license for these compounds |
| Myrrh (Commiphora molmol) | JP 10298097 held by a Japanese individual - Aamedo Mohamedo Ari Masoudo | Traditional use dating back to ancient Egyptians. Patent applies to the treatment of schistosomiasis |
| Yellow yam (Dioscorea dumetorum) | US 5,019,580 held by Shaman Pharmaceuticals and M. Iwu | Used in West African traditional medicine to treat diabetes. Patent applies to the use of dioscoretine to treat diabetes |
| Monellin from Serendipity berries (Dioscoreophyllum cumminisii)42 | US 3,998,798; JP 5,070,494 held by University of Pennsylvania (US) and Kirin Brewery Ltd (Japan) | Used for centuries by West Africans to sweeten food and drink |
| Harpagophytum procumbens | US 5,888,514 held by Weisman Bernard (US); WO 9744051 held by Finzelberg S Nachfolger Gmbh (DE) and the inventors | Species endemic to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, where it has a long history of traditional use and is also harvested for international trade. Patents cover use of extracts to treat various bronchial asthma, ulcerative colitis, Chrohn's disease, rheumatism, and bone or joint inflammation. No known benefit-sharing arrangements are in place. |
| Harungana vismia | US 5,837,255 held by Shaman Pharmaceuticals Inc. (US) | History of traditional medicinal use in a variety of African countries. Product targeted towards the treatment of hypoglycemia and diabetes. |
| Hypoxis and Spiloxene species | US 4,652,636 (1987) held by Roecar Holdings NV (NL) | Plants originate in Southern Africa where they have traditionally been used to treat tumours and infections. Patent applies to the use of the compound for treatment of any cancer but lymphocitic leukaemia. |
| Mesembryanthemaceae family, including Sceletium tortuosum | WO 9,746,234 held by Farmac Nederland B V (NL) and South African nationals | Traditionally used by communities in Southern Africa as an inebriant and sedative. Patent grants a monopoly on the use of mesembrin and related compounds in the treatment of mental disorders. |
| Brazzein ("J'oublie") (Pentadiplandra brazzeana)43 | US 5,527,555; US 5,326,580; US 5,346,998; US 5,741,537 held by the University of Wisconsin (US) | Plant originates from Gabon, where it has long been used as a sweetener. Patent applies to the protein compound providing the sweetness, the Brazzein gene and transgenic organisms expressing the gene. This will eliminate the need for it to be collected or grown commercially in West Africa. Prodigene is introducing the gene in maize. There are plans of benefit sharing with West African people who discovered and nurtured the resource. |
| Pygeum (Prunus Africana)44 | US 3,856,946; FR 2,605,886 held by Debat Lab (France) | The tree is native to African montane forests, with a broad range of distribution. Traditionally used for carving and to some extent for medicinal purposes.45 Its use for the treatment of prostate disorders has resulted in sales of some US$150 million per year, but also serious over-exploitation in many areas. |
| Thaumatin from (Thaumatococcus danielli)46 | US 4,011,206 US 5,464,770 held by Tate & Lyle (UK) and Xoma Corp (US) |
Plant originates in West Africa, and researchers at the University of Ife in Nigeria first identified its potential as a sweetener. The gene has since been cloned and used as a sweetener for confectionery. People from whose lands the plant was obtained received no compensation.47 |
| Fungus (Eupenicillium shearii) | US 5,492,902 held by the US Dept of Agriculture; the University of Iowa Research Foundation; and Biotechnology Research and Development (US) | Fungus is derived from soils of the Ivory Coast. Intended use is as an insecticide. |
| New strain of HIV virus-1 | US 5,019,510 held by Institut Pasteur (France) | The strain was isolated from a Gabonese doctor. Patent is claimed for the virus and its DNA sequence. |
Only the Rich get Cured -
|
Given the current situation, how can the tremendous biological resources and human innovations of the African continent be used to benefit the region? One solution embraced by players as diverse as the World Bank, national governments, UN agencies, NGOs and the private sector, is to actively commercialise biodiversity and community knowledge and technologies within the benefit sharing and conservation provisions of the Biodiversity Convention. Biodiversity, they argue, cannot be adequately conserved without economic return: through commercialisation, the biological riches of developing countries will be valued and will bring economic opportunities and much needed technology transfer and capacity building. In practice, however, commercialisation is transferring the control and development of biodiversity into the hands of largely Northern corporations and institutes, and leaving little by way of return for communities on the ground.
Every day, more and more African biological resources are collected for commercial purposes, to be screened for potential therapeutic or other benefits, or to be packaged and marketed as herbal drugs, cosmetics or other natural products. Reports from Namibia, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Ethiopia indicate the increase in bioprospecting.48 Local interest is also increasing: universities, museums, botanical gardens, and other research institutions are collaborating in bioprospecting deals. They provide foreign companies or research institutions with help in field collections, provision of biological material or information, and in a very small number of cases where the capacity is available, through direct participation in new product discovery. Individual biologists, chemists, and healers from developing countries are approached by companies or foreign research institutions wishing to investigate a country's biodiversity and - generally through a lack of awareness - accept ad hoc payments or enter into an agreement out of line with the access and benefit-sharing provisions of the Biodiversity Convention. Dwindling government research budgets have made developing country universities and research institutions especially vulnerable to the lure of Western scientific institutions and companies.
A major problem is that most African countries lack the technological and scientific capacity to capitalise on commercial collaborations and the opportunities created by the Biodiversity Convention. Also lacking is the relevant expertise to negotiate and ensure a fair deal, a constraint heightened by the absence of legislation in most African countries to regulate access to genetic resources and to set parameters for benefit-sharing. Given this, how can commercialisation of biodiversity be anything but a reinforcement of Africa's role as a rich seam of raw material to be expropriated, achieving at best only trivial benefits for their struggling economies?
Some African countries - notably South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria - have been able to engage in the process, through 'adding value' to information and resources supplied, by undertaking in-country research and development, and in some instances gaining access to screening technologies and product development (see box). While such projects have to some extent strengthened local institutions, scientific capacities, and biodiversity inventories, there is still little indication as to how African people are to be socio-economically uplifted, how incentives are created for biodiversity conservation, how generators of community knowledge and technologies are compensated, nor how the vexed questions of patenting of life forms are resolved. In short, commercialisation seems ultimately to serve rather than address the economic imbalances and inequities of the global trade system.
Some, in South Africa for example, doubt the ability of bioprospecting to pay real dividends, and show a growing recognition of the importance of developing and supporting industries based on phytomedicines, personal care products and food supplements.53 This option offers fewer risks and delays,54 the use of technologies more appropriate to developing countries, and also a far greater chance of benefits reaching the ground. Thus, in South Africa, a job creation programme for retrenched mineworkers is spearheading the commercial production of a beer made from the indigenous marula tree; in Namibia a women's cooperative is involved in the commercialisation of a resource long used and nurtured by them; and in Botswana and Zimbabwe numerous projects are being launched to develop products, owned and managed by local communities. Countries clearly need to develop strategies to respond to bioprospecting and the search for new drugs and other products, but Africa is best positioned to invest its energies in more locally driven solutions to economic and environmental crises that provide tangible economic improvements to local livelihoods.
Key Bioprospecting Initiatives in Africa
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How are African governments, farmers, NGOs and communities responding to these fundamental changes in agriculture and healthcare, and the incursions into African tradition and culture? Is the stage set for a new and mightier form of colonialism, where Africa is helpless in the face of economic conditionalities and trade pressures?
On the contrary, despite the enormous obstacles facing the continent, at the turn of the millennium, a new and dynamic political phase is abroad in Africa, identified as the "second independence struggle" or, according to South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, an "African Renaissance". This is being reflected at many levels, and in many different ways. From Addis Ababa to Cape Town, the call is for the continent to find "African solutions for African problems", in discarding pessimism, taking control of its own future, breaking neo-colonial relations with the world's economic powers, and vigorously pursuing the economic recovery of the continent. There are moves to protect the rights and interests of indigenous and local communities, reject the patenting of life forms, and develop indigenous technologies and innovations that are appropriate to local conditions and needs.
Within international fora, these sentiments are illustrated by the increasingly influential role played by Africa in the various initiatives stemming from the Convention on Biological Diversity and in the World Trade Organisation.
The dramatic collapse of the Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle in November 1999 was caused in part by a joint rebellion by developing countries, prominent among them the Africa Group of ambassadors, against being steamrollered by the industrialised nations into an agreement. In an unprecedented, and strongly worded statement during the meeting, on 2 December 1999 the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) / African Economic Community (AEC) warned that:
There is no transparency in the proceedings and African countries are being marginalised and generally excluded on issues of vital importance for our peoples and their future... We reject the approach that is being employed and we must point out that under the present circumstances, we will not be able to join the consensus required to meet the objectives of the Ministerial Conference. We therefore expect that our concerns as consistently expressed by African countries ... to be adequately addressed.
The WTO - and indeed the whole globalisation project - suffered a stunning loss of legitimacy at Seattle. The collapse of the trade round was not only an affirmation of developing countries' complaints, but also an opportunity to further challenge the way the WTO serves the interests of the industrialised nations and their corporations. The Africa Group still continues to refuse to accept a new round of talks until its concerns about imbalances at the WTO and in the global trading system have been dealt with. Building on their newly found muscle and solidarity in Seattle, WTO General Council Chairman Ali Mchumo of Tanzania said the least developed countries would continue to fight to rectify the imbalances from previous trade agreements.55
More specifically, the Africa Group's position on the revision of the TRIPS agreement was a major stand. In the run up to Seattle, African governments, regional bodies such as the Organisation for African Unity (OAU)56 , the South African Development Community (SADC)57 and the African Group of Ambassadors, had affirmed:
The African TRIPS position is supported by many developing countries like Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Uganda. In addition, peoples’ movements and NGOs around the world urged their governments to support the position of the Africa Group.
The collapse of the WTO round left the vexed issue of patents on life, and the different positions of developing versus developed countries, unresolved. Though most developing countries should have implemented TRIPS by 1 Jan 2000, 80% of those African countries due to do so have not.60 There are reports of US mounting pressure through 'WTO TRIPS Compliance Meetings' for patent regimes to be adopted in Africa, presenting patents on life as inevitable and with no information about the current stalemate at the WTO made available. At one meeting, the Southern African Development Community's legal adviser had no information about the strong SADC statement made in Seattle regarding life patents.61 In fact, given the current state of play in Geneva, the TRIPS review could be extended well beyond 2000. This provides a golden opportunity to stand firm on the Africa Group's position, which is in fact the most comprehensive proposal for a favourable way forward for developing countries.62
Above all, in the rejection of TRIPS Africa is arguing for the WTO to allow member states to maintain systems of their own choice in order to ensure national food security, livelihoods, healthcare, and the development of sustainable agriculture. At the regional level, initiatives are underway to put such systems in place.
The strong, united African position contributed to progressive positions being taken on the environmental, ethical, social and economic consequences of modern biotechnology under the Biosafety Protocol. During the last two Biosafety Protocol meetings, the Africa Group was nominated to lead the 'Like-Minded Group'63 in negotiations. It was well positioned to do so due to the fact that it had been analysing the issue and developing its position for a number of years. Africa's strength, together with that of most developing countries, and the aftermath of the collapse of the WTO meeting in Seattle, helped to create a situation in which a Biosafety Protocol was agreed upon.
The OAU has developed 'African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources'. This model aims "to ensure the conservation, evaluation, and sustainable use of biological resources, including agricultural genetic resources, and knowledge and technologies in order to maintain and improve their diversity as a means of sustaining the life support systems". Importantly, it rejects intellectual property rights and sets out alternatives to UPOV for the protection of plant varieties.
In co-operation with the OAU, SADC is drafting common legislative framework for sui generis rights, including catering for different sectoral activities within a country - from horticultural products through to open-pollinated crops and medicinal plants. Another recent OAU initiative has resulted in draft biosafety model legislation that would make it illegal for a country to export genetically modified food without first seeking permission from the importing country.64 Such co-operative undertakings and debates help to enable governments to establish domestic regimes that regulate biotechnology, control access to genetic resources, ensure equitable benefit-sharing, and protect the rights of farmers, communities and plant breeders.
While it is still too early to assess the impacts of OAU processes, awareness is undoubtedly growing among governments as to the urgency of implementing measures to deal with these issues. In many countries, TRIPS requirements for countries to create intellectual property rights over plant varieties have provided a major impetus. In countries that have significant plant breeding activities, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, legislation has long existed to do this. In Zimbabwe, such legislation is coming under increasing scrutiny and efforts are underway to develop a sui generis legislation, in line with the proposal described above for SADC. Other countries such as Zambia, are committed to a Plant Breeder's Act presently being formulated through wide consultation.65 In Uganda draft legislation to protect community rights is on the table and going through a process of consultation. In a number of Africa countries, including Ethiopia and South Africa, there are ongoing policy processes to ensure the protection of traditional knowledge and Farmers Rights, though South Africa in particular is facing powerful lobbies opposing this.
At the national level, perennial constraints of capacity, resources, vested interests, corruption, and lack of political will are critical obstacles to government awareness of and ability to support and implement broadly the progressive joint position taken by African negotiators in international fora. A major problem, and one that is not unique to Africa, is that institutional links between biodiversity and trade issues are usually not made within and across national government departments. Despite the current policy vacuum in most countries, as governments' awareness grows they are also realising the importance of legislative measures to control access to genetic resources and to regulate biotechnology. (See Table 2, page 16).
Making the links between trade, structural adjustment, biodiversity conservation, and basic development issues has been far less of a problem for the growing and dynamic coalitions of civil society organisations, farmers, scientists, and citizens throughout the region. They have become more and more engaged with trade issues as these have impacted civil society's areas of concern of local sustainability and equity. Non-governmental organisations were steadfast in their support for the positions taken by the African Group for the WTO negotiations.66 For example, the African Trade Network, of over 20 NGOs and civil society groups from 10 African countries, called on African political leaders to prohibit the patenting of life forms and ensure the protection of traditional knowledge over biological resources by supporting the Africa Group position.
Grassroots groups throughout Africa are working to safeguard the region's threatened biodiversity, as well as to safeguard agriculture and healthcare systems that serve the needs of local populations. A recent example is that of a consortium of groups from Southern Africa who launched a South African Seed Initiative in early 2000 to ensure food security and nutrition security for all those affected by the floods in the region. They appealed to the international community to "prevent the importation of inappropriate seeds to the Southern African region which can undermine agrobiodiversity and thus food security for years; and to support efforts to reconstitute locally adapted planting material and quality seed material/varieties, like indigenous or farmers' varieties appropriate to the various ecosystems."67 Table 2 includes outlines of other grassroots initiatives on the continent, though many more are newly emerging.
Maintaining momentum for Africa's self-determination - in the face of dramatic obstacles - is a great necessity. There are enormous pressures on Africa from the World Trade Organisation, UPOV, and transnational corporations, to adopt WTO rules and introduce TRIPS and high-input and corporate controlled agricultural systems. Huge vested interests are at stake, from the faceless transnational corporations pushing biotechnology at all costs, to those government officials already reaping significant benefits through handouts and iniquitous deals.
Yet, the current period marks a real sense of strength and renewal, reflected in Africa's effective negotiating on the world stage, and its strong analysis and joint positions on biodiversity. The voice from Africa is growing steadier and stronger in defending the values of self-determination, the right to control its own biological resources, and the need to protect the knowledge and livelihoods of its communities. The momentum it is creating is not just articulating a newly confident African voice, but is encouraging other Southern communities to demand global justice.
Recommendations1. Build on local knowledgeAfrica's biodiversity based food and health systems should be strengthened and enhanced. These are based on generations of refining knowledge and adaptation to local needs and ecosystems. New or foreign ideas and technologies should be evaluated according to their capacity to enhance such diversity-based systems, and improve their sustainability and productivity. In that context, the enhancement of community control over local livelihood systems should be the first priority. 2. Prioritise local and regional economies and livelihoodsAfrica should strengthen its local and regional economies as a first priority, rather than turning its focus to competing in global markets. Africa is a rural based economy that supports millions of people living in diverse local livelihood systems and informal economies. Indiscriminately opening up these systems and economies to global market pressures and corporate control, where the starting positions are so unequal, will inevitably result in their destruction and increase poverty and marginalisation. 3. Support and implement joint African positionsAfrican unity in international negotiations on a number of critical issues has made it a global force, fomented solidarity amongst developing countries, and challenged the domination of industrialised countries. It is very important that this proactive stand and this unity is maintained and supported, and that the proposals are internalised at the national levels into policy, practice and legislation. Most essentially these include:
4. Strengthen role of civil societyContinued networking and monitoring by civil society groups are fundamental to conserve and use biodiversity, and to protect the rights of Africans to safe food, appropriate and adequate healthcare, and diverse sustainable livelihoods. It is important that in the area of biotechnology, governments, NGOs and farmers organisations continue to evaluate and monitor the introduction of transgenic crops into their countries. Mandatory environmental and social impact studies and full disclosure of all information about releases and commodities should be required and implemented. A broad public discussion on the appropriateness of genetic engineering for Africa needs to be promoted. 5. Towards meaningful benefit sharingThere is a serious danger that Africa's biodiversity is turned into merely yet another commodity traded between the rich and the poor, resulting in the appropriation of knowledge and resources. This is the direction much of the current benefit sharing initiatives are taking. Rather than leaving the benefit sharing discussion to bilateral deals between powerful corporations and weak countries and communities, clear and mandatory rules of the game should be drawn up. Those on the ground should be able to insist on local job creation and other visible demonstration of benefits, with the ability and information to refuse anything less and token gestures. Those involved in agreements should be required to give full disclosure and implement full prior informed consent procedures. But perhaps most importantly, more resources and energies should be put to develop and build locally driven initiatives to add value and quality to products from biodiversity, both for its local use and for its international trade. |
1 World Bank, World Development Report,
Oxford University Press, 1992.
2 P. Heffer, Preparatory Meeting for the Establishment
of an African Seed Trade Association, Lilongwe, Malawi, 8-10 April 1999,
International Seed Trade Federation, FIS, 1999, p29; RAFI, World Seed
Conference: Shrinking Club of Industry Giants, News release 3 September
1999. http://www.rafi.org
3 B. Dinham, Pesticide Use in Sub-Saharan Africa, Unpublished
report, Pesticide Action Network, 1999.
4 Ibid.
5 S.A Laird, K. ten Kate, Natural Products and the Pharmaceutical
Industry, The Commercial Uses of Biodiversity: Access to Genetic Resources
and Benefit-Sharing, Earthscan, European Commission, London, 1999 pp.
34-77.
6 World Bank, Global Economic Prospects for Developing
Countries 2000, December 1999.
7 Corporate Council on Africa, News Release, http://www.africacncl.org/press_releases.htm
Accessed 31 March 2000.
8 Panos Institute, More Power to the World Trade Organisation?,
Panos Briefings, November 1999.
9 L. Machipisa, Levelling the Playing Field, InterPress
Service, 28 March 2000.
10 United Nations Development Programme, Human Development
Report,UNDP London 1999.
11 European Union, The new ACP-EU Agreement, http://www.oneworld.net/euforic
Accessed 31 March 2000.
12 BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest Volume 3(20), IATP,
24 May 1999
13 L. Main, C. Skinner, South Africa, Africa and the
European Union. Negotiating an African Renaissance?, Indicator South Africa,
Vol 15(2), 1998, pp 43-50.
14 C. Landsberg, C. Kabemba, The US and Africa. A New
Beginning?, Indicator South Africa, Vol 15(2), 1999, pp 36-39.
15 S.A Laird, K. ten Kate, 1999, op cit.
16 Ibid.
17 F. Dakora, Using indigenous knowledge to increase
agricultural productivity in Africa, Indigenous Knowledge and its Uses
in Southern Africa, HSRC Cooperative Programme, Institute for Indigenous
Theory and Practice, 1997
18 W. Mundaka, Farmers Rights: The Crisis Every Ugandan
Farmer Needs to Know About, 8 Rural News, Integrated Rural Development
Initiative, http://www.nic.ug/IRDI/html/rights.html
19 GRAIN, Plant variety protection to feed Africa? Rhetoric
versus reality, GRAIN, October 1999. http://www.grain.org/publications/reports/variety.htm
20 Preparatory Meeting for the Establishment of an African
Seed Trade Association, op cit. pp. 22-25.
21 Ibid pp. 47-52.
22 Ibid pp. 113-117.
23 M. Mlangeni, US company buys majority stake of South
Africa seed producer Sensako, Business Day, 5 March 1999. http://www.bday.co.za/99/0305/company/c3.htm
24 L. Cook, Seed Firm to Lose Staff, Business Day, 25
August 1999. http://www.bday.co.za/99/0825
25 RAFI, Legal "Terminator" Threatens Francophone
Africas Farmers, News Release 17 February 1999; E. Masood, Africa Splits
Over Bar to Plant Patents, Nature, 11 March 1999.
26 The Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants,
an intergovernmental convention managed by the UN World Intellectual Property
Organisation. Its original Plant Breeders Rights Convention was adopted
in Paris in 1961. Since then the Convention has been amended several times
and two forms of PBR are now in common use. Most UPOV members adhere to
its 1978 Convention, which is widely interpreted by governments to allow
farmers to save and exchange seed. UPOVs 1991 Convention, however, assumes
that farmers cannot save seed unless governments permit specific exemptions.
27 F. Wambugu, Why Africa Needs Agricultural Biotech,
Nature, Vol 400, 1 July 1999, pp15-16.
28 USDA, USDA launches biotech research project for Sub-Saharan
Africa, USDA Press Release, July 27 1999. http://www.gene.ch
29 Africa moves to strengthen biotechnology, Nature,Vol
399, 6 May 1999, p6.
30 ISAAA, ISAAA Launches New Intellectual Property /
Technology Transfer Initiative, News Release, 12 November 1997. http://www.isaaa.org/new1.htm
31 N. Opperman, Plans for biotechnology association for
food, feed and fibre sectors, The Farmer, October 1999, p. 25.
32 H.R. Herren, Potentials and Threats of the Genetic
Engineering Technology: Quest for an African Strategy at the Dawn of a
New Millennium, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology,
1999.
33 See for example, M. Mayet, Critical Review of Existing
Legislative Framework for Genetic Engineering in South Africa, Biowatch
South Africa, August 1999.
34 F. Huang et al., Inheritance of resistance to Bacillus
thuringiensis toxin (Dipel ES) in the European Corn Borer, Science 284,
1999 965; E.L. Losey et al., Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae Nature,
Vol 399, 1999, 214; T. Spears, Birds Do It Bees Do It. Nature Frustrates
Efforts to Confine the Spread of GM Plants, The Ottawa Citizen, 4 January
2000.
35 A. Seiler, Impacts of Biotechnology on the Third World,
17 IPR info, IATP, 1996
36 Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, The
Socio-Political Impact of Biotechnology in Developing Countries, Novartis
Foundation 1999
37 RAFI, Suicide Seeds on the Fast Track: Terminator
2 Years Later, News Release, 25 Feb 2000.
38 N. Marshall, Searching for a Cure. Conservation of
Medicinal Wildlife Resources in Eastern and Southern Africa, TRAFFIC International,
Cambridge, 1998.
39 M.M. Iwu, Handbook of African Medicinal Plant, CRC
Press, 1993.
40 WWF, Medicinal Plants, Fact Sheet,
http://www.panda.org/
resources/factsheets/general/temp/fct_medicinal.htm Accessed 22 March
2000.
41 F. Grifo et al, The Origins of Prescription Drugs,
Biodiversity and Human Health, Island Press, Washington DC, 1996
42 RAFI, Biotech Industry Sweet on African Plant Proteins,
RAFI Genotype, 28 September 1997.
43 RAFI, Biopiracy Update: A Global Pandemic, RAFI Communique,
9 September 1995.
44 Ibid.
45 Laird, S.A., Lisinge, E, Benefit-Sharing Case Studies:
Ancistro-cladus korupensis and Prunus africana, Case Studies on Benefit-Sharing
Arrangements, Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity, Fourth meeting. Bratislava, Slovakia, 4-15 May 1998.
46 RAFI, Biotech Industry Sweet on African Plant Proteins
op cit.
47 K. Leisinger, Ethical and Ecological Aspects of Industrial
Property Rights in the Context of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
Lecture transcript, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, 1996.
http://www.foundation.novartis.com/genetic_engineering_biotechnology.htm
48 Responses to a questionnaire administered in January
1999 by GAIA and GRAIN.
49 Foodtek, South African initiative will triple number
of plants ever investigated by mankind, News Release, 25 September 1998.
http://www.foodtek-int.co.za/biocontent/pressre.htm
50 R. Wynberg, Benefit-Sharing in South Africa: Fact
or Fiction?, Forthcoming in: Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge: Equitable
Partnerships in Practice. Edited by S.A. Laird. A WF/UNESCO/Kew People
and Plants Conservation Manual. Earthscan Publications, 2000
51 Technical Collaboration with IOCDs Biotic Exploration
Fund, unpublished document, International Organization for Chemical Sciences
in Development. http://www.iocd.unam.mx/biodiver.htm
52 RAFI, IOCDs Biotic Exploration Fund. Development Programme
or Corporate Proxy?, RAFI Genotypes, 14 March 1997.
53 M. Mander, Marketing of Indigenous Medicinal Plants
in South Africa. A Case Study in KwaZulu-Natal, Food and Agriculture Organisation,
Rome, 1998.
54 C. Weiss, and T. Eisner, Partnerships for Value-Added
through Bioprospecting, Technology in Society, Vol 20, 1998, pp481-498.
55 BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest Vol. 4(4), IATP,
1 February 2000
56 Council of Ministers, Elements for a Positive Agenda
in the New Trade Negotiations Under the WTO from an African Perspective,
70th Ordinary Session / 5th Ordinary Session of the AEC, 6-10 July, Algiers,
Algeria. CM.2110 (LXX) Annex IV.
57 SADC Ministers Agreed Negotiating Objectives for the
Third WTO Ministerial Conference, WT/L/317, 1 October 1999.
58 While existing language in the TRIPS agreement gives
members the option of excluding plants and animals and "essentially
biological processes" from patentability, the provision of an option
to patent effectively sanctions the patenting of life forms.
59 Members are given the option of excluding plants and
animals and "essentially biological processes" from patentability,
but this does not extend to microorganisms and microbiological processes.
60 GRAIN, Towards a Full Review of TRIPS 27.3b: An Update,
GRAIN, March 2000.
61 Gaia Foundation, WTO: Seattle and Beyond, Gaia Foundation
Compilation, March 2000.
62 GRAIN, Towards a Full Review of TRIPS 27.3b: An Update,
op cit.
63 The group consists of China and the G77 countries,
excluding Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.
64 E. Masood, Africa seeks laws on GM food exports, Nature,
Vol 5, August 1999.
65 E.D. Zulu, R.M. Makano, A. Banda, National experiences
and plans to implement a sui generis system of protection in Zambia, Paper
presented at the UPOV-WIPO-WTO Joint Regional Workshop on The Protection
of Plant Varieties Under Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement, Nairobi,
6-7 May 1999.
66 Third World Network,Joint NGO statement of support
for the African Group Proposals on Reviewing the WTO TRIPS Agreement (Article
27.3b), Third World Network, August 1999; SUNS, NGOs ask governments to
reject new trade round, SUNS No. 4505, 7 September 1999.
67 http://www.snafu.de/~usp/seed-ini.htm
Accessed 24 March 2000.
Author
Rachel Wynberg, BIOWATCH (with contributions from Gaia/GRAIN).
BIOWATCH, PO box 69, St James, 7946, South Africa. Tel: (+27 21) 788 7677;
fax: (+27 21) 788 9169; e-mail: rachel@iafrica.com
Acknowledgements
This briefing would not have been possible without the tremendous help
and commitment of many people. The following people in particular are
gratefully acknowledged for their assistance with providing information,
advice and comment.
o All those who responded to the questionnaire -
Robert Lettington of the African Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya;Dr
Tewolde Gebre Egziabher & Sue Edwards, Institute for Sustainable Development,
Ethiopia. Phoebe Barnard, Namibian Directorate of Environmental Affairs;
Herta Kolberg, National Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Namibia; Jean
Marie Fondoun, Programme Conservation des Ressources Genetiques, Cameroon;
Athman Mgumia, Mtandao wa Vikundi wa Wakulima Tanzania; Thomas Kentos
Bakyatita, Joint Energy and Environment Projects Uganda; Paul Therence
Senghor, Senegal Institute for Agricultural Research; Dr JC Autrey, Mauritius
Sugar Industry Research Institute; Doreen Mnyulwa and Julius Mugwagwa,
Biotechnology Trust of Zimbabwe; Dr Abebe, Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity
Conservation and Research.
o Barbara Dinham of the Pesticide Action Network
o Robert Maybury and Charles Weiss of the International Organisation for
Chemical Sciences in Development, USA
o Dr Hans Herren and Dr Wilber Lwande of the International Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (ICIPE)
o Sarah Laird
o Cyril Lombard of CRIAA SA-DC
o R. Guyer (Novartis)
o All those who reviewed the text.
o Those at Gaia/GRAIN
Global Trade and Biodiversity in Conflict
Global Trade and Biodiversity in Conflict is a series of exposés
produced jointly by the Gaia Foundation and Genetic Resources Action International
(GRAIN). The series examines critical points of conflict between the privatisation
of biodiversity, which is being driven by corporate interests, and the
World Trade Organisation, and peoples efforts to empower local communities
in biological and cultural diversity management, particularly in developing
countries.
For more information:
GRAIN
Girona 25, pral, E-08010,
Barcelona, Spain
Phone: (34-93) 301.13.81
Fax (34-93) 301.16.27
E-mail: grain@grain.org
Internet: www.grain.org
The Gaia Foundation
18 Well Walk
Hampstead, London
NW3 1LD, UK
Tel: (44 207) 435.50.00
Fax: (44 207) 431.05.51
E-mail: gaia@gaianet.org
