BRAZIL'S INDIANS TAKE PATH TOWARD MEDICINAL PATENTS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The poison on an arrow that paralyzes a wild beast
in the jungle and a pill that can relax our tense muscles have something in
common -- they both come from the curare plant discovered by Brazilian Indians.

Now, the indigenous people of Brazil want this type of link between
primitive hunting trick and modern pharmaceutical technology to be
recognized as a property right that could bring much-needed cash to needy
tribes, some of them on the brink of extinction.

In their crusade, Brazilian officials and Indian representatives this week
will take a declaration from a convention of Indian spiritual leaders and
witch doctors to the United Nations' World Intellectual Property
Organization meeting in Geneva.

"There is no law defending indigenous traditions and all the models are for
the ideas and science of the white man," said Marcos Terena, chief
coordinator of Indian rights program with the government's Funai Indian
protection agency.

"We are also trying to prevent piracy in genetic resources, in biodiversity
on our lands," said Terena, who comes from Terena tribe in the Pantanal
region in central western Brazil.

Latin America's largest country accounts for about a half of the planet's
wild and plant life, which is concentrated in the Amazon rain forest
region, home to many Indian tribes.

The government's National Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) that
handles patents and trademarks in Brazil sponsored a meeting on the issue
in the northeastern city of Sao Luis, capital of Maranhao state, in early
December.

Twenty-three witch doctors and shamans, wearing feathers and leaf-skirts,
represented various regions of Brazil, stretching form the hilly south with
moderate climate to the Amazon rain forest and to the arid northeast. Among
the tribes represented were the Quajajara, Xavante, Warairo and Crao.

"They have the knowledge, and our aim is to protect their knowledge as
intellectual property ... it's a national priority," said Jose Graca
Aranha, INPI president.

Emboldened By AIDS Drugs Victory

Brazil, Graca Aranha said, was one of the first countries to raise the
issue of copyright for traditional knowledge and is the only one taking
concrete proposals to Geneva.

"Many big pharmaceutical and other companies are using it to make money,
with no benefits whatsoever for the indigenous community," Graca Aranha said.

He explained that patents normally cover more advanced stages of scientific
research, while the basics such as curare qualities discovered by Indians
or contraceptive properties of rupulumini plant, are taken for granted.

Indians are inspired by Brazil's success in brokering this year's World
Trade Organization deal on patents that will give poor countries better
access to discounts on AIDS drugs. They hope their case will gain more
weight now.

Indians make clear they are not against progress and science. "We are happy
that our knowledge helps to create new medicinal and alimentary formulas,
but we have to get some credit and economic access to the results," Terena
said.

The letter signed by witch doctors and shamans, and bearing fingerprints as
some of them cannot write in Portuguese, contains mainly recommendations to
local and international authorities, but on some points the Indians are
quite firm.

"As indigenous representatives, we affirm our opposition to any forms of
patents related to the usage of traditional knowledge and we request the
creation of punitive mechanisms to block the pillaging of our
biodiversity," the letter says.

The long-standing Indian demand of reservation border demarcations is also
included in the missive. Indians insist that their millenary knowledge had
allowed to preserve some forests in their primordial state and that the
tribes had to stay put on their lands for the flora and fauna to live.

The Brazilian government says it is committed to setting aside Indian
lands, but this can entail appropriating territory from farmers which can
cause delays and even armed conflicts.

Guarding The Guarana

Brazil's 220 indigenous tribes account for less than one percent of the 170
million population. Many live in jungle or remote regions after being
pushed inland by Portuguese explorers 500 years ago.

Illegal logging, as well as gold and diamond rushes in some regions have
evicted and even wiped out some tribes.

The organizers of last week's event hope that the U.N. body, which groups
representatives of 160 countries, would hammer out a treaty regulating the
usage of traditional knowledge in such fields as herbal medicine and foods.

They also want to put their representatives on the United Nation's
intellectual property committee, on the World Trade Organization and other
international bodies. The letter asks for the swiftest approval of a
five-year-old U.N. declaration of Indian rights.

Indians stress that the nature of relationships between them is based on
collective principles.

"Unlike the way the white man acts, proceeds from any rights would benefit
not just the guardian of traditions, but all the people," Terena said,
adding that Indian lawyers would be monitoring the implementation of any
future regulations.

He said it was high time that regulations be set up as some tribes were
losing their traditional knowledge.

"Our witch doctors fear that those who they pass their knowledge to will
not be able to guard it and will sell it, so many traditions are dying with
them."

As an example of great benefits that Indians could have enjoyed if they had
a patent, Terena recalled Amazon Guarana plant, which has a tonic effect
and is the base for a top-selling beverage in Brazil.

"If only we could have this patent!" Terena exclaims, noting that Indians
would still fight for this copyright.

The Crao tribe still preserves the method of cultivation of ecologically
pure potatoes and corn with extra nutritional value, which they are willing
to share on a copyright basis.

But one drug that Indians say do not want to cash in on is the white powder
derived from the coca leaf. "The use of our medicinal plant has been
corrupted," Terena said.