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A North South conflict

  • 30/12/1999

A North South conflict biotechnology and bioresources are two issues that have been in conflict for a while. Biotechnology, proposed as "the technology of the next century', has its proponents in the developed countries and users in developing countries. But with companies in the North taking the bioresources from the South, patenting them and selling them right back to the developing countries, biotechnology has now become a major area of North-South confrontation.

That developing countries have a great stake in biotechnology cannot be ignored. What is required is that these countries make optimal use of their bioresources applying biotechnology in a way that suits the communities that have, over the centuries, protected this biodiversity. The book is based on papers presented at a seminar convened by Gene Campaign, a non-governmental organisation based in New Delhi. Experts and practitioners got together and, at the end of the seminar, drew up at a set of recommendations. The participants included experts from India and other countries such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Two papers make interesting reading

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