Trouble in Mexico
despite demands by 11 indigenous peoples' organisations to suspend the us $2.5 million us government-funded bioprospecting programme, the University of Georgia has refused to wind up its activities in Chiapas, Mexico. The objective of the five-year project is to study thousands of plants and microorganisms used for medicinal purposes by the Mayan communities.
Collectively known as the Council of Indigenous Traditional Midwives and Healers of Chiapas ( citmhc ), the 11 Mayan organisations have denounced the project and are asking the local people to refuse to cooperate with the researchers.
The project is led by the University of Georgia in cooperation with El Colegio de la Frontera Sur ( ecosur ), a Mexican research centre, and Molecular Nature Ltd, a biotech company based in Wales, United Kingdom.
Entitled "Drug discovery and biodiversity among the Maya of Mexico', the project is being funded by the us government's International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups ( icbg ), a consortium of us federal agencies that gives grants to public and commercial research institutions that conduct