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Society

Biopiracy, When Indigenous Practices Are Stolen And Patented

Quassia Amara
Quassia Amara
Martine Valo

PARIS — One of France's state institutions is under fire for what critics call a textbook example of "biopiracy," an issue that is also at the heart of a new bill the French Senate approved just last month.

Last year, the country's Research Development Institute (IRD) earned a patent on a molecule extracted from the leaves of a small tropical tree, the Quassia Amara, known in Latin America for its insecticidal and medicinal properties. IRD researchers isolated a specific molecule, Simalikalactone E (SkE), that they intend to use for malaria medicines.

The problem, according to the Fondation France Liberté-Danielle Mitterrand, a watchdog group that has advocated against biopiracy for years, is that the IRD didn't come up with the idea alone.

Before extracting the molecule, the IRD first questioned Creole people in French Guiana and members of the Kali'na and Palikur indigenous groups, natives of the northern coastal areas of South America, about their traditional medicines. But it never sought their consent to develop future medications, nor did it involve them in the SkE discovery process, Fondation France Liberté-Danielle Mitterrand alleges.

"This is an example of flagrant injustice towards the indigenous peoples of French Guiana," says Emmanuel Poilane, the group's director.

The foundation is challenging the European Patent Office's decision to grant the IRD a patent in this case. "We argue that as regards SkE, the supposed invention is not new because researchers simply reproduced knowledge passed down from generation to generation," says Poilane.

The case has also drawn the ire of Rodolphe Alexandre, French Guiana's highest ranking official. "The misuse of people's traditional knowledge without their consent and the total lack of return to the community cannot be tolerated," he said. Alexandre said he learned "with astonishment" about the filing of a patent on a "typical sort of local traditional medicine," and described the IRD researchers as having a "total lack of ethics."

For the IRD, which has approximately 2,000 employees (including 800 researchers) and hasworked for more than 60 years in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Asia, the accusations are a tough blow. "It gives us a bad reputation," says John Paul Moatti, the institute's head.

Moatti says the controversy impedes the IRD's ability to do research, and argues that researchers are in a race against time to develop new treatments before mosquitos develop resistance to existing ones. "To move forward, we have no choice but to file patents," he says.

France, in the meantime, is preparing to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, an international agreement that looks to foster a more equitable distribution of the benefits derived from genetic resources. France originally signed the accord in 2011. But is it really ready to adhere to the new rules?

Moatti promises to "of course follow the law as soon as it is passed." Not everyone is convinced. Thomas Burelli, a doctor of law at the University of Ottawa, in Canada, says French public researchers tend to forget all about shared knowledge once it enters their labs. As such, they've never really demonstrated a willingness to commit to the Nagoya Protocol, he claims.

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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