Indigenous knowledge and sustainable development

resources, bioprospection and pharmacology of natural products are the object of specific legislation.

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 in its Article 225 § 1º establishes the competence of the government to preserve the diversity and integrity of the country’s genetic patrimony and supervise all activities related to, and institutions involved in, research and manipulation of genetic resources.

One of the results of the Rio Conference was the Convention on Biological Diversity approved on June 5, 1992, which stated in its Preamble the preoccupation with …the intrinsic value of biological diversity and of the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic values of biological diversity and its components. In Brazil it was the refer ended by Decree nº 2 of 1994. Four years later a law disciplined the access to genetic resources and established a special Commission for Genetic Resources with the power to propose, coordinate, and implement the national policies and to supervise, control, and evaluate the activities and access to genetic resources.

At the time, discussions involving genetic engineering, cloning, and the use of trunk cells led the government to issue Provisional Decrees where widely different subjects and issues were treated as related themes. They led to the establishment of the Council for the Management of the Genetic Resources (Conselho de Gestão do Patrimônio Genético), which had its powers regulated by Decree 3495 of September 28, 2001. Since that date. A succession of Provisional Decrees intended to regulate the access and utilization of biodiversity erected a bureaucratic barrier and confuse and conflicting regulatory measures that brought great difficulties to the routine activities of zoologists, botanists, and anthropologists, who were forbidden to send back specimens borrowed from foreign natural history museums, including type species, to collect specimens in the field, and to exchange scientific materials. Biochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology were regulated as bioprospection and wait for a definite coherent legislation. (Cancan, 2005)

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Nowadays, over 1,5 million species of animals and 300 thousand plants have been described and named but recent estimates of the total number of existing organisms varies from a conservative 10,000 to 50,000. The term biodiversity refers not only to species but also to infra especific genetic diversity and to ecosystems.

Tropical regions offer a more diversified choice of ecological niches and provides for increased biological activity; as a result, ecological webs are more complex and biodiversity greater than in other latitudes. South and Central America lies in the Neotropical Region, with the greater portion of Mexico in the Neartic. The largest continuous rain forest of the Globe is found in South America, although other biomes are important for sustainable exploitation.

Indigenous knowledge is a rich field of investigation and it is not my intention to quote the extensive bibliography on this complex subject (see Baldus, 1954; Schaden, 1976; Ribeiro, B. 1995): It would lead us to explore the techniques of agricultural practices (Garlick & Keay, 1970; Faust, 1998; Atran et al, 1999), ceramics (Barata, 1952), weaving (Cascudo, 1959), art and artifacts (Ribeiro, D. 1957, Ribeiro, B. 1989), musical instruments (Camêu, 1962), navigation (Camara, 1976), housing, hunting and fishing (Velard, 1942).

As an example of the issues involved, I quote a comment by Faust (1998) on the Mayan processes of technological change highlights some of the complexities involved in this type of research. We tend to forget that local conditions require local solutions. That author describes how the techniques involved in water management and agricultural practices in ancient Mayan settlements differed from one community to another to fit specific ecological regional requirements. Distinct techniques demanded different forms of sociopolitical organization and changed in response to differences in climate, the diffusion of ideas, local inventions, and the growth or decline of populations.

In this article we will be concerned with the appropriation of indigenous knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazonia, related to drugs and the rights to intellectual property of indigenous lore of plants, animals, and processes used in the promotion of

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health and the cure of diseases. A more complete analysis of the religious, magical and mystical aspects of health and diseases, the ceremonies of initiation, and the practice of folk medicine are found in Araújo, 1977.

The early days:

From the early days of European colonization, indigenous habits, customs, social organization and knowledge had been duly recorded. Traveling naturalists and religious missions collected and compiled native prescriptions and data on medicinal properties of the native flora and fauna (Pardal, 1957; Santos Fº, 1977, 1991). Until the late 19 ^th century,

native pharmacology and the medicine practiced by captive or by freed slaves were popular practices, complementary to those of medical doctors who went to study in Europe or received a degree from one of the two medical schools established in the first decade of the 19 ^th century in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

While pharmacology of natural products searches for active drugs using the research methods of conventional chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, ethno pharmacology searches for new drugs in traditional knowledge, i.e., in human artifacts. Not only a record of common usages is important as a starting point but also a detailed knowledge of the general context in which they are collected, prepared and used is of fundamental importance. Morán (1990) argues that the adption of ideas from other societies must be adapted and absorbed into, the structure and culture of the new society. Furthermore, plants transplanted from one site to another may have their characteristics changed. The right time for harvesting is also important.The conception of health and disease in each culture is also an important factor, when searching for drugs of universal usage (Elisabetsky, 1987).

Since some indication is better than no indication, the search for information on the uses of native products in travel records and in botanical/zoological/anthropological collections constitutes a good starting point, far better and less costly than blind testing. But the first and foremost problem we face is the correct taxonomical identification of the natural

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