In 1994 the indigenous peoples of the Amazon learnt of the fact that a variety of our sacred plants Ayahuasca, Yagé or Caapi (Banisteriopsis Caapi) had been patented in 1984 in the Office for Patents and the Registration of Brands of the United States (Reg. No 5751 of June 17th, 1986, by the bio-pirate Loren Miller along with a new variety of Ayahuasca termed Banisteriopsis Caapi (cv) Da Vine.

In the wake of this incident, huge polemics and debates were initiated for these procedures means revenues of millions for the multinationals of bio-prospecting that scrounge on the ancestral knowledge and existent resources in our territories. Other plant varieties of ancestral use have also been patented the la uña de gato, sangre de drago, Quinine, Quinua, campu.

As COICA in the framework of defending our collective rights for indigenous intellectual properties pointed out: “We have repeatedly made clear that the ancestral knowledge is the heritage of the indigenous peoples and is of intergenerational character. This means that no government, company or individual is entitled to consider these as common goods or for profit and commercial use. We resist any patents over life because they will affect the indigenous peoples and humanity. The principles that determine our position are legitimate, reinforced by ethical and juridical reasons and therefore irrevocable and we are not willing to retract from them.”

Before the assault on the rights and dignity of the indigenous peoples , en 1994 we declared Mr. Loren Miller persona non-grata among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon and at the same time prohibited his entry in our territories, not holding ourselves responsible for his physical integrity considering the fact that his presence and conduct would have generated conflicts in the communities whose norms had been violated by having part of their heritage usurped. This position had been ratified by the V. Congress of COICA (Georgetown, May, 1997) which at the same time presented the Board of Directors with the mandate to continue actions until the annulation of the patent be achieved.

This institutional position generated a surprising reaction on the part of the Interamerican Foundation (FIA), by means of its vice-president Adolfo Franco, the American embassy in Quito and the ultraconservative Jesse Helms, which demanded that COICA and CONFENIAE should withdraw. Simultaneously, a campaign of libel was launched against the indigenous leaders, which were dubbed “terrorists”.

The international public opinion like Indigenous, Human rights, and environmental organizations among them UICN and the WWF-International expressed their solidarity with the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and made their disagreement with the positions that had been adopted against our leaders clear.

In March of 1999, under the auspices of the International Center for Environmental Legislation (ICAL), whose headquarter is in Washington and with the help of The Amazon Alliance, COICA on behalf of the Indigenous peoples of the presented the demand to suspend the patent granted to Miller Amazon before the US Department for Patents and the Registrations of Brands. Antonio Jacanmijoy, the than General Coordinator of COICA made clear that:” The conference of this patent is a harsh insult on more than 400 peoples who inhabit the Amazon basin, since Ayahuasca is a sacred plant used to heal our illnesses, to cleanse our spirits and to divine our future and it belongs to all of the communities that use it. Therefore it is inadmissible that an individual intends to be its proprietary.

The first achievements of COICA were reached on November 3rd in 1999 when the US Department for Patents and the Registrations of Brands decided to provisionally suspend the mentioned patent on the grounds that it had been known beforehand and that it had been available before the granting of the patent. US-legislation on that issue stipulates that an invention or discovery cannot be patented if it had been previously described in a print-publication in any country, minimum a year before the date on which the application for the patent was made. The temporary suspension of the patent could be achieved because the presumably “New variety of Yagé” had been previously described in the Herbarium of the University of Michigan. Ironically, in the decision respect for the ancestral knowledge did not figure at all.

One has to keep in mind that the US is one of the few countries that have not ratified the Convention on Biodiversity which established global norms on Conservation, sustainable use and equitable distribution of the benefits stemming from the resources of biodiversity, moreover the respect for the ancestral knowledge, innovation and practices of local and indigenous communities. (Art. 8)

The case of Ayahuasca is an example for the way in which the intellectual property of indigenous peoples is understood and how the industrialized countries handle it, which are pressurizing strongly to impose their system of patents on a world wide level.
For us intellectual property is collective, for all of the member of the community or a people are proprietors of the ancestral knowledge on differing levels. It is knowledge passed on from generation to generation like a public good. In the industrialized countries intellectual property is conferred upon a single person, as a private title evidently for commercial ends making its principal objective its maximum benefit.

For COICA “ the principle of substantiated prior consent, must be a rule applied to all activities that affect us as indigenous peoples. If this principle is being respected we will grant our consent to share our knowledge about plants and its curative qualities, whenever our rights are respected and guaranteed among them the participation in the benefits and collective properties, with the option to accept or not to accept, whenever the consultation process is carried out in a legal manner and respects our knowledge as well as the collective property. Equally, it is our right to participate in the distribution of the benefits derived from the commercial use of our knowledge, of bio- and genetic diversity existing in our territories. “

Before the temporal suspension, Loren Miller put forward an appellation arguing that he had indeed complied with the three prerequisites of novelty, od not obvious and of utility, considered the basis for the concession of a patent. The solicited office restituted the patent to the solicitant on April 17th, 2001. The arguments pointed out that a third party in this case COICA, the ICEL, and the Amazon Alliance could not question the final decision of the US Department for Patents and the Registrations of Brands since according to American legislation the only one endowed with this “right” is the title bearer.

We, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and the whole world, raise our voice and undertake a global campaign directed towards the aim that the collective property of our ancestral knowledge be respected. Our has been and is backed up on any level by all those that respect and honor the property of the traditional indigenous knowledge. A recent incidence gives legal validity to COICAs demands: the original application of the patent implies its validity for a period of 20 years which was concluded on June 17th, 2003. Consequently, the patent has already lost its validity which with the ratification of the same fact in 2001 has become void.

Our lasting appeal towards the Indigenous peoples is that we maintain our vigilance about activities of bio-prospection which intend to access the communities for their ancestral knowledge.

COICA,
Quito, July 7th, 2003