Reclaiming the Commons

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Vandana Shiva. Reclaiming the Commons

RECLAIMING THE COMMONS. Biodiversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth

RECLAIMING THE COMMONS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD BY RONNIE CUMMINS

INTRODUCTION. My Thirty-Year Journey on Biodiversity, Biopiracy and Intellectual Property

The Colonial Option

The Sovereign Option

ONE. The Duty to Protect Biodiversity. THE CONVENTION ON BIODIVERSITY AND THE BIODIVERSITY ACT. Protecting Our Rich Biological and Intellectual Heritage

The Convention on Biological Diversity

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising out of their Utilization

The Indian Biodiversity Act 2002

Defending the Biodiversity and Knowledge Commons: Navdanya’s Community Biodiversity Register (CBR)

Why has documentation of community knowledge become necessary?

TWO. TRIPS, Biodiversity, and Section 3(j) of India’s Patent Act. How India defended the sovereignty of Biodiversity, Farmers and the country in the GATT/WTO

Exclusions of Article 27.3(b) of TRIPS and Section 3(j) of India’s Patent Act

Section 3(h) of the Indian Patent Act excludes from patentability a method of agriculture or horticulture

Section 3(j) of the Indian Patent Act and Monsanto’s Bt cotton case: A story of violation of Indian patent laws, pseudo-science, and illegal royalty collection from farmers

The shifting sands of Monsanto’s illegal patent claim to Bt cotton

The Long History of Illegal Royalty Collections on False Claim of Patents on Bt Cotton

Bt cotton, a failed technology for pest control

Monsanto has also made the false claim that the HC ruling was violative of TRIPS, trying to reduce India’s standing in the international community

India’s Laws are Sovereign Laws

National security = economic security = prevention of piracy of intellectual resources

THREE. Agrobiodiversity, Seeds and India’s Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Act

The Protection of Agricultural Biodiversity and Farmers’ Rights

The Monopoly Control Over Seeds

TRIPS and a sui generis regime for plants

The UPOV Convention, Breeders’ Rights and Farmers’ Rights

The TRIPS Agreement of WTO and Indian Legislation: The Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act

(a) Plant Patents

Monsanto Group’s Cotton Varieties with IPR under the PPV&FR Act

Farmers Rights’: The Key to the Future of Our Seeds, Future of Our Farmers, Future of Our Farming

Farmers’ Rights as Community Rights

Community Rights in a sui generis Regime

Farmers’ Rights are Rights to Seed in the Past, Present, and Future

Seeds of Suicide: Enclosure of the Seed Commons, Seed Monopolies, Undermining of Farmers’ Rights through IPRs Leading to Farmer Suicides

Thus, these are not just numbers but real people and real lives being destroyed

Why are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide Today?

Green Revolution: The Beginning of the End

Myths and Frauds

The Central government admits to the failure of Bt technology

Farmers’ Rights in the FAO: Evolution of Legal Exclusions

What Farmers’ Rights Are Not:

Farmers’ rights are not merely a fund

Protection of Agricultural Biodiversity and Farmers’ Rights through the Biodiversity Convention

The Seed Satyagraha for Protection of Farmers’ Rights

Bija Satyagraha is:

Farmers’ Rights: A People’s Charter

FOUR. Biopiracy: The Patenting of Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity. Biological and Intellectual Piracy

Biopiracy of Phyllanthus Niruri

Biopiracy of Turmeric. Turmeric Patent Table

Liberating the ‘Free Tree’: Challenging the Neem Biopiracy Patent

The Resistance

The Victory of Biodiversity and People Against Corporate Piracy of Neem

Neem Patent

Biopiracy of Basmati by RiceTec

Basmati Characteristics

The double denial of Nature’s Creativity and Farmers’ Creativity

Farmers Rights for Prevention of Biopiracy

People’s Victory

Syngenta’s attempt at Rice Biopiracy of India’s Rich Rice Heritage

Peoples’ victory and challenges

News Article Excerpts

Monsanto’s Attempted Biopiracy of Indian Wheat

Biopiracy Victory of Indian Wheat

ConAgra and the Biopiracy of Atta (Flour)

Atta Monopoly: ConAgra to takeover small chakkis

Monsanto’s Biopiracy of Indian Melons

Stopping Monsanto’s Piracy of Rajasthan’s Agriculture

Biopiracy of Brinjal

Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops

Piracy of Medicinal Plants, Recipes and Soil Organisms

Biopiracy of Vechur Cow

IPRs: Threats to Economic Survival of Communities

BIOPIRACY FACT SHEETS

Bioprospecting as Sophisticated Biopiracy

How Bioprospecting Undermines Access

How Bioprospecting Creates Poverty

Cases of Bioprospecting CSIR-San Hoodia Case: Who Owns What?

FIVE. The Western Corporate Bias in Knowledge and Property Rights which Facilitates Biopiracy as ‘Creation’ and ‘Invention’

From Pluralism and Diversity of Knowledge Systems to a Hierarchy of Knowledge

The Western bias in Defining “Enclosures of the Commons” as Creation of Private Property Rights

Corporate IPRs as Extension of the Eurocentric Concept of Property to Biodiversity and Biodiversity Related Knowledge

SIX. The Enclosure and Recovery of the Commons

Understanding the Commons

(De)Constructing the Commons

Commons vs. Open Access Systems

Ostrom and the Theory of Commons

From Commons to Commoning

Reclaiming the Commons

Indigenous Knowledge and the Knowledge Commons

The Imperative to Recognize and Respect Knowledge Pluralism, and the Collective Cumulative Knowledge Commons of Indigenous Communities

Juridical Innovation for the Recognition and Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

The Colonial Legacy: Erosion of Community Rights

Reclaiming the Sovereignty of the Community

Recovery of the Commons

Community Seed Banks

Navdanya Seed Bank

Community Biodiversity Registers

Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Area) Act

Vasudhaiva Kutumbukam: From Corporate Anthropocentrism to Earth as Family

The Sustainability and Justice Imperative

Rights to Nature

Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

Proposed Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

Ecuador

Bolivia

Article 7:

Rivers Have Rights

Rivers in Victoria, Australia

Whanganui River, New Zealand

Ganga and Yamuna Rivers, Uttarakhand, India

Atrato River in Colombia

Jaiv Panchayat–Living Democracy

Natural Rights Flow from Rights of Nature

Western Bias ‘Naturalizes’ Anthropocentrism and Enclosures of the Commons to Define Rights to Private Property as a Natural Right

Natural Rights are not given, they arise naturally from being living beings. Natural rights are not political rights

Denial of these natural rights doesn’t mean they have been extinguished

Potential for the Future

Interconnected Space of Rights

Interconnectedness

Anna Swaraj is a Natural Right

Rights Always Exist with Responsibilities

Notes

Index

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Praise for Reclaiming the Commons

“If you ever wondered what a Saint would look like in our modern era, search no further. Vandana Shiva has emerged as one of the globe’s most effective advocate for family farmers, the poor, safe, nutritious food, dignified communities, humane working conditions, democracy, and biodiversity. Her profound spiritual dimension forms the platform for her ideals, and gives her the resilience to withstand daily slanders, vilification, and censure from the global power centers. She risks her life, safety, and freedom in a fierce struggle against the Chemical Cartel: tyrannical governments and the homicidal corporations conspiring in tandem to privatize the commons, commoditize the planet, subjugate its people, and to censor dissent.

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Two decades ago, they tried to prevent regulation for the fair, equitable, sustainable, and just use of biodiversity. Today the laws for equity and sustainability are in place both nationally and internationally. The attempt now is to dilute and subvert them. Our work today, as thirty years ago when we started Navdanya, is to protect our biodiversity, our sovereignty, our commons.

We are at a new watershed. In the 1990s we were defining a new partnership between the sovereignty of the country and the sovereignty of local communities. Today–with strong laws that exclude the false claim to invention of life forms, laws for Biodiversity Conservation, and regulation for access and benefit sharing–we can take the next quantum leap in the form of a new partnership between the creativity of nature and her diverse species, the innovation of traditional communities, and our sovereignty as a nation.

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