Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The commercial development of biological compounds or genetic sequences by a technologically advanced country or organization without obtaining consent from or providing fair compensation to the peoples or nations in whose territory the materials were discovered.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun pejorative The
appropriation ofindigenous biomedical knowledge , especially bypatenting naturally occurring substances
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun biological theft; illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use
Etymologies
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Examples
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Bioprospection, or biopiracy, is not a futuristic scenario but a reality.
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First, they say they are frustrated by the limited benefits that their countries gain under the current ABS frameworks, complaining that the rich world is engaging in "biopiracy" - plundering their resources without sharing any of the loot.
ICTSD 2010
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Africans call this biopiracy, which is exactly what it is.
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Africans call this biopiracy, which is exactly what it is.
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Less interesting is his discussion of Wickham's "biopiracy" and how it furthered Britain's imperial designs.
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Less interesting is his discussion of Wickham's "biopiracy" and how it furthered Britain's imperial designs.
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Such "biopiracy" is now being justified as a new "partnership" between agribusiness and
Monocultures, Monopolies, Myths And The Masculinisation Of Agriculture 1997
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Such 'biopiracy' has led many developing countries to focus on ways of protecting, rather than promoting, their traditional knowledge.
SciDev.Net 2010
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The fight against "biopiracy" has won the support of indigenous communities and defenders of the Amazon rain forest who say corporations unfairly benefit from medicine and other products derived from Brazil's exotic plants, poisonous snakes or brightly colored frogs.
Reuters: Top News 2010
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The fight against "biopiracy" has won the support of indigenous communities and defenders of the Amazon rain forest who say corporations unfairly benefit from medicine and other products derived from Brazil's exotic plants, poisonous snakes or brightly colored frogs.
Reuters: Top News 2010
vanishedone commented on the word biopiracy
Brian Martin: 'Biotechnology companies look around for natural products with beneficial properties, such as the neem tree, long used in rural India for making various products. When the companies take out patents on neem chemicals, uses and products, they pay nothing for the labour of local people who discovered and developed them. Third World activists are now organising against this form of "biopiracy."'
January 15, 2008