Bioprospecting: A Text AnalysisBreanne LottGlobal Health Capstone Project

Interest & Background What’s the deal with ethnobotany and

bioprospecting? How can we avoid biopiracy? Why is this an important issue? Relevance to me and culmination of my

undergraduate career. Perfect combination of Global Health and

Biochemistry subjects. Reflects the multi-dimensionality of Global Health-

social justice, human rights, sustainability, cultural maintenance, and cross-cultural interactions.

Research Question and Hypothesis What will be the most prevalent themes

in a variety of texts that aim to regulate the field of bioprospecting?

I hypothesized that in examining laws, rules, regulations and guidelines intended to govern the interactions of bioprospecting, themes of monetary gain and property rights will be the most prevalent.

My Project Content and thematic text analyses of 6 important

documents written on bioprospecting. United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity

(CBD) World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-

Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples World Health Organization’s Bioprospecting Policy Code of Ethics of the International Society of

Ethnobiology Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual

Property Rights

Methods I started with a simple content analysis

of each text using an online text analysis software (textalyzer.net) to obtain: Word frequency and top words 3, 4 and 5 word phrases Readability

Let’s Take a Look…

Name of the Document Some of the Top 10 Words (by frequency)

WHO Bioprospecting Policy

Access, policy, benefits, sharing, resources, genetic, biological

WTO’s TRIPS Shall, agreement, members, rights, intellectual, property

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Convention, shall, diversity

UN’s Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous, peoples, rights (top 3) but also cultural

Maatatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual

Property Rights

Indigenous, peoples, cultural, intellectual, property, international

Code of Ethics for International

Ethnobiologists

Research, local, communities, traditional, principle, ethics, societies

- From the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects

of Intellectual Property Rights

3, 4 and 5 Word Expressions and Context

- From the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The Next Phase…Themes that I was particularly looking for: Statements regarding money, payment, monetary or

economic benefit, income, sharing of benefits, etc. Reference to ownership over the traditional knowledge,

property rights, intellectual property, access to resources Concerns over sustainability, conservation, maintaining

biodiversity Acknowledgement of need for a multi-sectoral approach Description of the desired relationship between parties Recognition of the community’s self-identified needs/wishes,

and overall respect for another culture Law related aspects, agreements, enforcement, procedures,

prior informed consent Mechanisms for reaching goals, monitoring and regulation

strategies Reference to other documents on bioprospecting

The Big One- CBD An international treaty Entered into force in 1993 The 3 objectives as identified by the CBD

are:1. The conservation of biological diversity2. The sustainable use of the components of

biological diversity3. The fair and equitable sharing of the

benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources

Pros & Cons Honestly focused

on doing the right thing

Comprehensive instead of sectoral

Is currently recognized by 192 States and the European Union

Not very enforceable, mostly suggestible

Very subjective, “as far as possible and as appropriate”

Absence of the US

TRIPS- World Trade Organizations Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

You can sense the Western culture in this text. It was based on models for intellectual property protection, a creation of industrialized societies.

Does not meet needs of developing countries.

Does not deal with collectively held property.

More precise, less over-arching than other texts.

Conclusions My original hypothesis was that themes of

economic benefit and property rights would be most prevalent in the documents on bioprospecting.

What I found was that the documents were actually focused on a variety of topics and that monetary gain and ownership over intellectual knowledge did not dominate the majority of the texts. The CBD was a pleasant surprise (but not

enforceable). The TRIPS agreement aligned most closely with my

hypothesis.