Question

What is the meaning of biopiracy? Give few examples

Answer 1

Hint: Biopiracy is Bio + piracy. Bio means life (here bio-resources) and piracy means stealing someone else's intellectual property. So, use of someone's bioresources without any systemic permission is biopiracy.

Complete answer:
The use of bio resources by the multinational companies and other organizations without any systematic approval from a nation or its related people without any compensatory payment is called biopiracy. Feeling is developing between developing and developed nations about injustice, inadequate compensation and benefits sharing. Due to this some nations are making rules to ban the use of their bioresources without prior permission.

Example of biopiracy:
> 1. Patenting of Azadirachta indica – Neem: We Indians have been using Neem since ancient times. We have shared our knowledge regarding neem across the globe. An American firm registered a patent in the United States for an insecticide whereas in 1994 the European Patent Office also granted a patent relating to fungicides but many Indian associations felt that these patents were confiscating ancestral knowledge as well as knowledge accumulated by farmers and Indian researchers over hundreds of years.

> 2. Basmati rice, Neem and turmeric are also are indigenous to the Indo-Pak subcontinent.
Additional information: Biopiracy can be prevented by can be prevented by developing laws for obtaining proper authorization and by paying compensatory benefits.

Note: Some other examples of biopiracy are: Patents on turmeric, margosa and many other medicinal plants which are indigenous to the indo-pak subcontinent, have been patented by other countries.