El Gobierno de Brasil tiene previsto a corto plazo enviar al Congreso una ley que restringe el acceso a los visitantes de la Amazonia. De aprobarse la ley, lo que es bastante probable dado que la impulsan de forma conjunta los ministerios de Justicia y Defensa y la apoya el Ejército, todos los trabajadores de ONG, los grupos de turistas o cualquier otro tipo de visita al pulmón del planeta requerirá un permiso oficial.
Fernando Gualdoni - Diario El país - 27/04/2008
La biopiratería, la apropiación de remedios y plantas tradicionales por parte de grandes empresas, comienza a toparse con la ley. En un fallo pionero, EE UU ha anulado la patente de un frijol mexicano que una empresa de semillas de Colorado registró como suya. La patente permitía a la firma cobrar por cada libra que México exportaba a EE UU, pese a que era tradicional al sur del Río Grande desde hace siglos. La FAO y otros organismos internacionales recurrieron la patente y el frijol amarillo vuelve a ser de los agricultores mexicanos.
Las primeras informaciones oficiales de esta iniciativa se conocieron el martes a través del ministro de Justicia, Tarso Genro, un hombre muy cercano al presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva y figura clave del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT). Genro declaró al diario Estado de São Paulo que muchas ONG extranjeras son una tapadera de grupos que se apropian de la riqueza biológica para investigar y patentar nuevas medicinas y que ejercen una dañina influencia sobre las comunidades indígenas.
El viernes, el secretario de Justicia, Romeu Tuma, confirmó a la agencia Associated Press la puesta en marcha de la ley: "Queremos que el Amazonas sea nuestra (...) Queremos que el mundo visite la región, pero queremos que nos informen cuándo van a venir y qué van a hacer". Tuma insistió en que la razón principal de las restricciones es lo que llamó la bio-piratería (la apropiación de plantas medicinales o remedios y tratamientos ancestrales).
Brasil es, junto a India, el país que más interés tiene en que la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC) reconozca los derechos intelectuales sobre estas medicinas para protegerlas de la apropiación de las farmacéuticas foráneas. "No queremos penalizar a las ONG o a los extranjeros, la mayoría hace un buen trabajo. Sólo queremos separar la paja del trigo", explicó Tuma.
Una fuente de Itamaraty, el Ministerio de Exteriores brasileño, comentó recientemente que el Ejército brasileño estaba preocupado por la presencia descontrolada de extranjeros en la Amazonia, un área que limita con Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia y que es muy difícil de mantener bajo control. Los militares incluso han tenido roces con el presidente Lula por la concesión a los indígenas de un territorio del tamaño de Asturias y Cantabria juntas en la frontera venezolana. Allí, en la reserva de Raposa Serra do Sol (Estado de Roraima), hay blancos armados y comunidades indígenas enfrentadas entre sí. Las autoridades sospechan que algunos extranjeros están soliviantando a una parte de los 18.000 indígenas de la reserva y temen un enfrentamiento.
La ley que prevé sacar adelante el Gobierno restringiría la entrada de extranjeros en un área de entre cinco y siete millones de kilómetros cuadrados que incluyen a ciudades tan turísticas como Manaos. La norma, en realidad, es una extensión de una en vigor que exige un permiso a los no indígenas para entrar a un territorio indio. Lo que el Gobierno de Lula pretende hacer ahora se intentó de forma parecida en los años setenta, durante la dictadura militar brasileña, pero fue imposible aplicar los controles. No obstante, el actual Ejecutivo confía en que los avances tecnológicos en sistemas de vigilancia harán posible la tarea.
Una de las ONG más afectadas por la nueva norma será sin duda Greenpeace, muy activa en la Amazonia contra la actividad de los madereros y los agricultores. Los pocos expertos que han comentado la nueva legislación en los medios brasileños creen que será perjudicial para la investigación médica y también para la protección de la selva de la deforestación.
Desde el Gobierno brasileño, sin embargo, se insiste en que en los últimos tres años la deforestación se ha reducido significativamente y que su lucha contra la tala ilegal es sin cuartel. En febrero pasado, la policía brasileña realizó la mayor operación contra los aserraderos clandestinos cerca de la localidad de Tailandia en el Estado de Pará. Participaron 140 agentes y confiscaron 10.000 metros cúbicos de madera. Sin embargo, durante los cinco meses anteriores a esta operación policial, la superficie de tala ilegal había alcanzado la alarmante cifra de 3.235 kilómetros cuadrados.
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Resource Notification: Seed Wars
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