So I was reading an article in Wired about biopiracy. Brazil arrested some Danish or Norweigan scientist who was taking (accidentally or on purpose...who knows, except the scientist, and he is rather....vague on the subject) plants and animals back to some land purchased on his behalf by his government. The flora and fauna that proved ultimately to be of value mysteriously made it's way back to Denmark, and some objects later were made into drugs or other products from which the company this man founded managed to somehow profit.

I understand that Eli Lilly and a few other drug companies do this sort of thing all the time. They don't get arrested, like this guy did, they get sued.

This guy got arrested and tossed into a Brazilian prison. He was charged with the relatively new crime of bio piracy - stealing biological material for profit.

The article pointed out the example of the rubber tree: seeds bought by an Englishman in the mid 1800's were transported and later raised in India, allowing Britian via India to later dominate the rubber market, and drive the indigenous markets out of business because they could not compete (also, geographically they were so much further away from their consumers....surely that contributed as well).

Local governments hold that whether or not they know they have a plant, or an animal, vegetable or mineral that holds a property or has an application that can be utlized by humans in some capacity - the rights to that belong to that land and to no one else. Under this philosophy, it is illegal for you to...hm...see a willow tree, pick off a piece of bark, boil it, drink the tea made therefrom, and use it to cure your headache (aspirin). Silly example, but it gives you a general idea of what the debate is about.

I'm torn. I understand you own the land. How can you claim to own something or desire to profit from it if you don't understand what you have? You want someone else who has put the research and education and effort into understanding the science and medicine to tell you what you have and then walk off? As if.