FYI,
Rahmad.-
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NEWS RELEASE
PALAWAN : A BIOPIRATES' HAVEN ?
An NGO coalition based in Puerto Princesa City recently called for a stop to
arising trend involving foreign and local researchers collecting plants and
insects among indigenous communities in various parts of Palawan Island.
"This alarming increase in biopiracy cases here in Palawan should be a
concern of us all", said Ms. Offie Bernardino, Executive Director of the
Palawan NGO Network Inc., a coalition of NGOs based in Palawan who are
monitoring bioprospecting activities that have not complied with existing
rules and regulations of the country.
Last February 2000, four scientists from the Slovak Republic were
apprehended in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan for collecting and
transporting, without any permit, various insect specimens.
They were released after paying P150,000.00 worth damages, but not without
staying for a few days in the Philippine National Police jail.
Earlier, in January, three French scientists from the Museum of Natural
History in Paris and two researchers from the National Museum of the
Philippines were caught by elements of the Puerto Princesa City-Community
Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) for collecting, without
permit from the appropriate government authorities, medicinal
plants from the indigenous communities in Tara Island, Municipality of
Coron.
These scientists were also released but the plant samples they have
collected have been seized and are now in the office of the PENRO, pending
the results of an investigation conducted by the Central Office of the DENR.
The Philippines, by the way, is the first country in the world to come up
with regulations on bioprospecting, upon the issuance of Executive Order 247
in 1995.
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Posted by:
21 September 2000
South East Asia Regional Institute for Community Education (SEARICE)
Unit 331, Eagle Court Condominium, 26 Matalino Street, Quezon City
Tel. Nos. : 433-7182;433-2067; Fax No. : 922-6710
Contact Person : Loret Palmaera
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