Ethnic and political arguments have paralysed an ambitious scheme to make an inventory of indigenous medicinal plants and remedies in Venezuela's Amazon jungle that could be used to develop drugs to fight cancer and AIDS. Preparations for the bioresearch project, involving 50 scientists from the Venezuelan Institute of Scien-tific Investigation and three Venezuelan universities, started with input from Oxford University's Foundation for Ethnobiology in 1991.
The project's director, Dr Fabian Michelangeli, said: “It's impossible to underestimate the potential of this. Venezuela ranks sixth in terms of world biodiversity, with at least 25000 species of plants, of which around 2000 have medicinal uses.” An exciting aspect of the project would be exploration of some of the country's 150 tepuis (massive, sheer sided, flat mountains), he added. Independent evolution of these mountains, which inspired Conan Doyle's “Lost World,” means that 60% of the plant species occurring there are indigenous.
Although government permission for the project was granted in 1999, a new socialist constitution ratified early this year radically increased the rights of the country's indigenous tribes to self determination in ancestral lands. Within three months, permits were withdrawn after complaints from the largest and most militant, church backed, indigenous political organisation, the Regional Organisation of Indigenous Amazon Peoples (known as Orpia).
The organisation claims that the Amazon's tribes have been systematically exploited by the country's white people and is demanding compensation. Dr Michelangeli said: “I do not deny that there has been exploitation—but we don't have any money to give away. However, the people are legally entitled to 10% of any profits if any drug can be produced, and could also be in charge of growing and selling the plants. The project would also preserve ancient medical knowledge which has been quickly dying out with increasing reliance on Western food and medicine. This could have a major positive impact on indigenous health, which is currently appalling.”
Dr Michelangeli's real complaint, however, is that Orpia does not even represent the 60 people living in the initial 200 km2 area of the project—all of whom have given their permission and have not heard of Orpia. In any case, he added, the area cannot be considered as “ancestral territory” as the tribes have lived there only since 1968. The very issue of ancestral lands is a minefield, he believes, as Amazonian tribes by their nature move constantly, die out, intermarry, and reappear under different names. A group rivalling Orpia, however, has backed the project, and Orpia appears to be using this as an electoral issue: its president, Guillermo Guevara, is running for a seat in the country's national assembly. The government is unable to act until a consensus has been reached, and Mr Guevara will not discuss the issue until after the elections in the autumn. Dr Michelangeli said: “It's so frustrating. In the year we were working we had already collected 1200 species, of which 300 could have medicinal applications. Twenty have shown powerful antiviral, antibiotic, or antifungal properties, and two contain components which seem to attack breast cancer cells. It would be such a shame if the world was deprived of a cure for AIDS, for example, because of political manoeuvering.”
Figure.
JERRY CALLOW/PANOS PICTURES
A Yanomami family in the Amazonian rainforest of Venezuela