Links to Activist Organizations and Bioprospecting Associations

  Activism:           

IPBN - Indigenous Peoples Biodiversity Network ipbn@web.net

SEARICE - South East Asia Regional Initiatives in Community Empowerment
http://www.searice.org.ph

ETC Group - Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration http://www.etcgroup.org

Vandana Shiva has been an active opponent of biopiracy, and wrote a book entitled Biopiracy - the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, and her website has more information. Navigate to food sovereignty and then biopiracy and campaigns: http://www.vshiva.net/

Action BioScience is a clearinghouse on articles relating to environmental issues:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/index.html

PrimalSeeds is an organization that fights to preserve biodiversity and sovereignty: http://www.primalseeds.org/biopiracy.htm

Environmental Commons: http://www.environmentalcommons.org/food-democracy.html

The Rural Advancement Foundation International has now become the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration: http://www.etcgroup.org/, an active member in the Coalition Against Biopiracy

The Global Exchange sponsors communication with the Chiapas groups, get involved at: http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/index.html

Reclaim the Commons: http://www.reclaimthecommons.net/

Bioprospecting

Merck has partnered up with InBio, a Costa Rican non-profit. To read the company's statement about this partnership, follow this link: http://www.merck.com/cr/science_innovation_and_quality/key_issues_in_research/biodiversity/home.html

Here is InBio's link to their bioprospecting unit: http://www.inbio.ac.cr/en/inbio/inb_prosp.htm

 

Bristol-Myers-Squibb also sponsors bioprospecting, and have established a council for BioEthics within their corporation: http://www.bms.com/static/ehs/perfor/data/humanr.html#bioprospect

 

Shaman Pharmaceuticals did much research, and prided themselves on incorporating local knowledge, but have since sold most of their property rights to other companies such as PS Pharmaceuticals: http://www.netsci.org/Science/Special/feature11.html and http://www.napopharma.com/mission.html

 

The International Center for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), is a research organization that sponsors and collaborates between national government bodies and scientists to promote biodiversity research. To link to their current work in Uganda, visit here: http://www.iocd.org/uganda_2004.html

 

The International Collaborative Biodiversity Groups program will be explored as one of the major case studies in this website, but it is interesting in its position because it has many large sponsors – the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture.

 

Other organizations, such as Monsanto, Syngenta Phytopharm, GloxoSmithKline, Pfizer and basically any large pharmaceutical companies sponsor bioprospecting and biotechnology research. Biogen, Genentech, and Chiron are also drug research companies that work with biotechnology.