Welcoming the pirates

to the tribals of India, February 25, 1996, had seemed like a red-letter day. On that day, S S Ahluwalia, the minister of state for urban development in the erstwhile Congress government, had formally announced that the Centre was at last ready to pay heed to the Bhuria Committee Report, granting them self-rule in their original homelands.

Blackballed for more than a year, the report clearly stated that tribal areas should not be arbitrarily clubbed under the Panchayati Raj system, as charted out in the 73rd constitutional amendment. The report took the position that adivasis should be allowed to set up their own structures of governance; most importantly, it rooted for tribal control over natural resources. But despite Ahluwalia's promise of either passing a law or issuing an ordinance, nothing has happened.

Meanwhile, in another part of the planet, similar negotiations were on. In mid-February, the Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico signed an accord with the government, which recognised the peoples' right to adopt their own forms of government, but sidetracked the issue of specific rights to their natural resources.

The two cases reflect the same trend. Governments can be cajoled, threatened or arm-twisted into letting the indigenous people rule themselves, but allowing the native peoples to manage their resources is a path none of them would like to tread. This is unfortunate. More so because the world community has finally come to terms with the fact that the planet's biodiversity is locked up in the territories of indigenous peoples who have always used their land, soil, water and genetic resources sustainably, and that they need to be recompensed for their efforts. The Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd) -- which came into force in December 1993 -- has as one of its primary objectives the issue of "free and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources".
The best bet The quest for the ideal system of benefit sharing -- one which ensures that the indigenous people benefit from what is rightfully theirs, and at the same time involves them in the process of developing a strong biodiversity data base -- is on in various parts of our country. One of the most talked-about models is being developed by Madhav Gadgil and his team at the Bangalore-based Centre for Ecological Studies (ces). In this model, the panchayat would be the key institution responsible for "conservation, enhancement and monitoring of biodiversity stocks" of the region within its jurisdiction. It would be in charge of all the local natural resources and would have the right to set prices on them.The actual power base of the panchayat s would, however, be rooted in the information system that they would have at their disposal. This would be in the form of community biodiversity registers, or cbrs. "A cbr is a comprehensive catalogue, recording information on biological diversity, both wild and domesticated, that must be continuously upgraded," explains Gadgil. Gadgil and his team envisage it as a complete orientation guidebook and seek to involve the entire local community in preparing and updating it.

While constituting the cbr, P R Sheshagiri Rao, a team member and his partners are trying to establish a symbiotic relationship amongst those trained in modern science and the 'practical ecologists'. The villagers, who would be entrusted with the prime task of collecting information and samples of the local bio-stock, would be given technical support by high school students in the documentation process. The cbr would be rechecked and validated by the units functioning above the panchayat to avoid duplication or false claims.

Good money
A rough sketch of the hierarchical structure of the model includes units like a global biodiversity fund, a national biodiversity fund (nbf), state governments, zilla (district), taluk (block) and the gram panchayat . The Gadgil team has an elaborate plan for revenue generation for the project. "The panchayat would charge fees if any agency, public or private, wants access to the information provided in the cbr," says Gadgil. This money will be used to give special grants and awards to the indigenous communities, so as to motivate and encourage them to use the resources in a sustainable manner. Apart from the fees, the panchayat treasuries would also be replenished by the nbf. The nbf would be receiving its funds from the biodiversity cess pool, a body which would be fed by taxes paid by industries using bio-resources. The team is also expecting contributions from outside India to help promote biodiversity conservation.

Revenue may also include a share of the biodiversity cess levied in other countries on the sale of India's ipr-protected products. According to Gadgil, the quantum of grant allotted to any panchayat would be proportional to how large and detailed a cbr it possesses. "We have conceived a system that involves payment of a straightforward cess by bio-based enterprises, and its disbursement through grants and funds in a transparent fashion," says Gadgil.

Once the money reaches the panchayat treasury it would be at the disposal of the people. The panchayat would hold gramsabhas (village community meetings), involving each and every resident. Here, decisions would be taken on whether the people should receive cash payments or invest in developmental works. One of the main advantages of the panchayat model is that it can fit into an already existing system. Besides, it provides clear and comprehensive provisions for information collecction. The Gadgil team is convinced that there would be no dearth of takers for cbr from the private sector. "Already, certain sectors of the industry are showing tremendous interest in funding research projects," claims Seshagiri. One such knowledge seeker is Kiran Mazumdar, proprietor of the Bangalore-based company Biocon, which is presently engaged in research operations in collaboration with foreign pharmaceutical companies and research institutes.

Queered pitch?
But would the cbr be able to safeguard the interests of the people? For, any information in the cbr will be in the public domain and can be freely accessed by anyone who chooses to do so. Of course, the panchayat can bring action against any company or institute using it without its permission.

In practice, however, such stringent monitoring is virtually impossible. The Gadgil team has thought of some options on this issue. One is that people contributing to the cbr would have the right to reveal only partial knowledge of the properties or uses of a particular plant or herb. The cbr will then simply record a claim and the information provided at the data banks would only serve as a pointer.

Commercial entrepreneurs would have to enter into a material or information transfer agreement with the community, tribe or individual to take up research for commercial application. This would be recorded by the panchayat authorities -- so that these bilateral agreements are registered and legalised. "This is the best way to ensure that the benefits reach the people. Trying to directly acquire a share of royalties might prove to be a futile exercise. Because till now, no appropriate legal framework exists that permits entities like tribal communities to enter into such agreements," says Gadgil.

But even he acknowledges that this can only provide a temporary solution, and is anyway liable to be dogged by myriad legal loopholes. Towards finding a more foolproof system, Narendra Hegde, a lawyer and a member of the ces team, is at present preparing a draft legislation which seeks to give protection to knowledge that is already in public domain.

Gadgil and his colleagues are wary of proposing a direct share of royalties from commercial use of resources mainly because they believe that this would involve highly sophisticated investigative work. It may even be difficult to prove. "For example, it will certainly be a tough job to establish that a specific gene for salt-resistant rice came from a particular Kagga rice variety found in coastal Karnataka," he says.

A contrary view
P Pushpangadan, director of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (tbgri), Palode (near Trivandrum), however, is a strong pro-royalty protagonist. And he is ready to present his model of benefit sharing. The tbgri staff are involved in enhancing and multiplying the plant genetic resources in this region, which has through the years suffered an alarming scale of erosion. And this has brought them very close to the local tribal communities.

The Kani tribe is predominant in this area, and while interacting with them, the tbgri team came across arogyappacha, or Tricophus zelyanicus , a herb with unique medicinal qualities. "Malan Kani, a tribal youth first spoke to me about this herb. It is a wonder plant that came as a blessing from the great sage Agastya, he said, and it revitalises the human system, generating energy and vitality," recounts S Rajsekharan, head of department of ethnobotany, tbgri.

Intrigued, he and his team brought samples of this plant to the institute laboratory. "It was put under detailed pharmacological and toxicological tests. And what is most interesting is that the arogyappacha bears close resemblance to varahi, one of the 18 divine drugs listed under the Shusruta Samhita , the ancient Ayurvedic scripture," says Rajasekharan. After rigorous in-house research, Jeevani , a restorative, immuno-enhancing, anti-stress and anti-fatigue drug was developed from arogyappacha. "Now, we had to launch it in the market, but we did not have the resources to go in for mass production," recounts Pushpangadan. So he chose to tie-up with the corporate sector. A memorandum of understanding was signed between tbgri and a Madras-based private company, Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. tbgri would transfer the technology of developing Jeevani and its manufacturing rights for a period of seven years and would be paid a licence fee, plus two per cent royalty, on the ex-factory sale price. Following this, the tbgri announced that it would share 50 per cent of both the license fee and the royalty with the Kanis. The institute would hand over the amount to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare department of the Kerala government; it was certainly a pathbreaking move. Nevertheless, tbgri came under fire. Led by N Vishwanathan Nair of the Kozhikode-based Kerala Institute for Research Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the anti-tbgri camp protested that tbgri has betrayed the tribals' trust by "handing over" their knowledge to private companies and leaving them wide open to exploitation.

Pushpangadan, however, insists that he adequately protected the Kanis' interests. "We have taken pains to ensure that the company continues to buy the raw material from the Kanis," he reiterates. The team claims to have conveyed an emphatic message to the corporate representatives that the therapeutic properties of the herb is fully developed only when grown in the natural habitat and not in labs.

With the help of the state government's integrated tribal development programme, the tbgri has set up a pilot cultivation project. Here, 50 Kani families have been given an acre (0.405 ha) of land each to grow arogyappacha . "They have already sold the first harvest," Pushpangadan enthuses. So not only do the Kanis retain the buy-back rights, they can also fix the price of the raw material, which is now pegged at Rs 30 per sack of leaves. "We are helping them acquire skills not only in cultivation but also in the art of negotiation," says Pushpangadan.

But notwithstanding all his effusions, with the rapid developments in the field of modern science, generating a plant variety in the laboratory under artificially created environment is becoming increasingly simpler. And in the near future, industrial users may well develop methods of producing the raw material artificially, depriving the tribals of their bargaining edge. Critics also aver that by opting to hand over the funds to the state government, the Kanis have been made pawns in the hands of the bureaucracy.

Vital traditions
There are other systems of direct interaction with the local communities in conserving genetic resources that are operating in different parts of the country. As of now, they are not focussed towards achieving the goal of involving the people in decision-making or profit-sharing, but with certain degrees of modification they can well be used for this purpose.

One model is being successfully practiced by the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health and Traditions (frlht) in Bangalore. Says Darshan Shankar, director of frlht, "First and foremost, we must explore the ways and means available for utilising the resources for our own interest." frlht's primary aim is to disseminate information and impart training regarding the conservation of common and rare medicinal herbs amongst village and tribal communities.

The samples of such plants are cultivated by the frlht, either in collaboration with research institutes like the tbgri or in parks maintained solely by itself. The frlht activists arrive at villages or settlements and convene a sabha, an informal village meeting. A core group of 10 villagers is selected, which takes part in a three-week-long training programme. Apart from teaching them how to grow these varieties in their backyards, frlht staffers also tell them how they can be used. Later, each team member is required to train 20 families.

This model can be used for documenting biodiversity information. It can interact with the local communities and supervise the collecting and cataloguing of samples. Being community members themselves, they would be able to win the confidence of the people and enlist their cooperation far more easily than an alien researcher. And once the contact is established and consolidated, the core group can actually function as a representative body. It can negotiate on behalf of the villagers or tribals if an agreement needs to be forged with a company or an institute, and act as a watchdog in general.

The final frontier
But like the cbr, this information too will be easily accessible by external agencies. So, a mode of protection and stringent monitoring has to be developed before any further action is taken on this front. Besides, the core group itself has to be made accountable to a superior body to ensure that there is no misuse of power at that level.

None of the ideas floated so far in this regard is fool-proof. What is required at this stage is in-depth analysis of each of these models, and the various others that are functioning in different parts of India or in other developing nations with similar conditions, in a bid to achieve a judicious amalgamation. Alternatively, it will be needed to evolve a new set of principles that grows out of these existing models, but succeeds in overcoming their defects.

This task can be best performed by the national government. In a developing country like India the government is the only agency which has at its disposal the resource, the expertise and also the clout to take on this gargantuan project. However, the government must carry along with it the other important players in the arena, the industry, the research fraternity and, of course, the people. A former us secretary of state had once remarked that the issue of genetic resources has introduced "a new dimension to national security". Is our government prepared, or even inclined, to take on this challenge on behalf of its people?