Biodiversity as a Common. A Case Study in Mexico
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Date
2015
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Abstract
"Biodiversity consists of all living creatures and ecosystems. With industrial development since XVIIIth century it has been increasingly exploited and destroyed, but this has worsen in XXth Century. Specifically with the beginning of genetic engineering in the 80s and 90s, a debate started about genes and living creatures’ property, as they passed from being considered human patrimony to private property and international regulations allowed patents of this resources. Although in these years there were great expectations and discussions about a new kind of bioprospection of genetic resources, in our times it seems that this was not as expected. On the contrary, biodiversity today is increasingly destroyed by accumulation by dispossession processes such as mining, oil exploitation and hydroelectric energy. In the paper we give field research results about a high biodiverse community in Cuetzalan, Mexico. In this place local and indigenous organizations are involved in a resistance movement against mining and hydroelectric projects. They have a very ancient knowledge about their biodiversity and until now they have succeeded against threats that would destroy it, together with water sources and culture. This case helps us in the reflection of biodiversity managed as a common in territorial resistance social movements."
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Keywords
biodiversity, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge