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Competitive Biodiversity of Human and Vascular Plant Species: The Implications for Pharmaceutical Industries, Health and World Economy Part- 1

“…The north and its private industry is increasingly using these countries as reservoir of biological and genetic resources to develop new products such as crop varieties, drugs, biopesticides, oils and cosmetics. Therefore, biodiversity has become the raw material of the new biotechnologies and the object of patent claims [2].…”

From “Burning Library” to “Green Medicine”

“…This positive popular image of biodiversity is reinforced by the fact that the debate on biodiversity seems to lack the controversies typical of other major environmental issues. This does not mean to say that the discussion on various aspects of biodiversity is consensual (Baumann et al 1996;Myerson and Rydin 1996;Shiva 1993;von Weiszäcker 1996). However, the popular image of biodiversity has not been affected very much by potential sources of controversy on issues such as development and democracy, North-South relations, property rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, ecotourism, or biotechnology.…”

“…Not only did the Biodiversity Treaty reflect concerns about the extinction of species and the destruction of their habitats, it also reflected the interests of the global economy and, more specifically, of biotechnology industries. An important part of the treaty was the protection of genetic diversity and the distribution of the profits gained from genetic material between Western industrial countries, rich in economic terms but poor in biodiversity, and developing countries, poor in economic terms but rich in biodiversity (Baumann et al 1996;Hannigan 1995).…”