1. Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
Joel Silverstein
PHI 407
Spring 2014

2. Overview Vandana Shiva What is biopiracy who it affects ethical issues
other works
Silverstein - PHI 407

3. Vandana Shiva environmental activist ecofeminist champion for rights
Published 1997
South End Press, Boston MA
Small Book 126 pages
(learngrowconnect.org)
Silverstein - PHI 407

4. (etcgroup.org)
Silverstein - PHI 407

5. Pirates had a code of honor
The ships they robbed were usually merchants - men who would buy things in one place, and then sell them somewhere else.
They respected women, children, and the elderly.
(deviantart.com)
Silverstein - PHI 407

6. Today’s Pirates
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7. What is Biopiracy? Piracy with a pen and a contract.
Appropriation and commercial exploitation of genetic resources in Developing Countries and/or traditional knowledge of indigenous communities by corporations, mostly from Developed Countries, which seek “monopoly control”, through patents, over these resources or inventions derived from these resources.
Piracy with a pen and a contract.
Silverstein - PHI 407

8. The Debate
Developed countries are exploiting developing countries’ genetic resources and indigenous communities’ traditional knowledge in the name of patent on inventions derived from those genetic resource and traditional knowledge
Biopiracy debate is generally connected with the debate on globalization and in respect of intellectual property rights
- and the Trade Related Aspects of the WTO Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (‘TRIPS’).
Silverstein - PHI 407

9. Book topics Knowledge Creativity and Intellectual Property Rights
Redefining Biodiversity
Can life be made ?
Can life be owned ?
The Seed and the Earth
exploitation of GMO seeds
Tripping Over Life
Undermining Ethical Conservation
Making Peace with Diversity
Nonviolence and Cultivation Diversity
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10. How biopiracy works
Scientists view nature as a source of raw materials.
Corporations patent an organism, gene strain, plant, and own its derivatives
Indigenous ideas and applications are purchased for paltry sums
Users of seeds, genes, concepts and ideas pay fees to corporations
many become indebted to the extent of servitude
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11. What constitutes a patent?
An ‘invention’ must fulfill three criteria,
‘novelty’, ‘inventive step’ and ‘industrial applicability’.
An invention must constitute new knowledge,
when compared to the state of the art” at the time of application (novelty),
Must not be “obvious to a person skilled in the art” (inventive step)
The invention must somehow be susceptible of industrial application.
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12. Critisisms of Biopiracy
Biopiracy is said to be unfair, unethical and
a threat to the existence of indigenous cultures.
Indigenous communities are bared from using or exporting their biological resources and traditional knowledge.
The companies that take genetic resources from indigenous communities and develop products (e.g. drugs)
enabling the company to sell the invention back to its “true inventors”.
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13. The conservation of biodiversity, at the most fundamental level is the ethical recognition that other species and cultures have rights, that they do not merely derive value from economic exploitation by a few privileged humans.
The patenting and ownership of life-forms is ethically a statement of the opposite belief.
Vandana Shiva 1997
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14. Application of Knowledge
Rights of communities
Rights of ecosystems
Genetic Engineering
Trade policies
Geopolitics
Issues that effect
Economy, Cultures, Social Structure, and Biodiversity
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15. Other Books by Vandana Shiva
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit
Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development
Making Peace with the Earth
Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice
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16. References
Gibbons, J. (1976, January 1). Office of Science and Technology Policy. Science Technology and Innovation. Retrieved April 8, 2014, from
Kothari, A. (1999, January 29). Biodiversity and intellectual property rights: can the two co-exist?, Workshop on Biodiversity Conservation and Intellectual Property Rights, The World Conservation Union. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from
Lamy, P. (2013, September 1). World trade organization. Retrieved April 19, , from
Moyers, B. (2013, July 12). Vandana Shiva on the Problem with Genetically Modified Seeds. Moyers & Company. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from
Shiva, V. (1997). Biopiracy: the plunder of nature and knowledge. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Uexkull, O. (1993). The right livelihood award laureats. Retrieved from
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