Too Much Monkey Business? The Monkeyman, The Lawman, and the Biopiracy Debate in Brazil

CPI of Biopiracy, final report, 2005. Citations for “Amazon Conservation Team.” Forbidden to enter areas and interact with Indians. Did it anyway. Worked with USAID and said it didn’t. So say a number of witness. Nonsense, says the ACT president, who founded an NGO for his father the monkeyman and funded it. Reading …

Asked about the interest of indigenous peoples in maintaining a relationship with ACT, he recounted an incident that took place in Xingu National Park, with the president of FUNAI in attendance, in which 14 indigenous groups said they do not want ACT in the park … Besides the suspicions that haunt this organization, the main reason cited by the natives was its failure to keep promises involving material benefits.

The former Brazilian government primatologist convicted of peculato — misuse of public resources for personal benefit or to benefit a third party — says he is a victim of political persecution. I also believe I heard him say that it is not fair for him to get cracked down on when other people still get away with what he is charged with. See

• Amazonian Monkey Business: ACTing Up?
• Google Maps: ACTing Up in the Amazon?
• Brazil: Did the Monkeyman do Monkey Business on the Monkeybars?
• “Brazil Borks Internet Monkey Auctioneer and Hero of the Planet!”

Two NMM Maxims apply to the Case of the Peculatory Primatologist: (1) “I am a victim of political persecution” is often correlated with the “banana-republican guilty plea” — “filibustering while changing the subject.”

And (2): Some NGOs are well-governed, transparent, respect the rule of law when operating internationally, and do legitimate work. Others are not and do not, to greater or lesser degrees. The idea is not original with me. The CFR says so, for example. It is a think-tank meme, so there must be something to it, right? You can hardly get your opinion into the Washington Post or onto the PBS News Hour these days unless you work for a think tank — and sometimes, by extension, for its secret Santas — after all.

The notion that the NGO sector as a whole is a Mormon Tabernacle Choir of latter-day saints is a myth. And this spontaneous outpouring of support for the Monkeyman feels more like a Brooks Bros. Riot Squad to me than anything also.

But NMM(-TV)SNB(B)CNNBS is still in the process of testing that intuition.

For starters, I have been going through the report of the Brazilian Congress’s CPI (commission of inquiry) on Biopiracy from 2005. This is part two of my translation of the minutes from Hearing No. 19 (May 18, 2005) on the conduct of the Amazon Conservation Team.

Freedom-loving bringers of Internet connectivity to the indigenous peoples of Xingu? Or peg-legged pirate-smuggling, bloodsucking biopirates? (The sale of blood samples from natives of the region to bioscience labs abroad is a particularly queasy-making case study taken up here.) There are a variety of perspectives on that question, but — pace Richard Edelman – some of them may be truer than others. So keep reading.

MÁRIO LÚCIO AVELAR, Procurador da República noEstado do Mato Grosso: expôs como se iniciou o processo de investigação em curso no Ministério Público, com o recebimento de uma representação da lavra da FUNAI, mais da Dra. Regina, a propósito de uma possível ocorrência de prática de biopirataria, levada a efeito no Parque Indígena do Xingu. Essarepresentação dava conta de que a ACT vinha realizando alguns trabalhos de elaboração de um mapa cultural envolvendo o Parque Indígena do Xingu. Afirmou ser incontestável que o Sr. Marcus, que é pai da pessoa que representa a ACT, num determinado período teve acesso a conhecimentos tradicionais da comunidade indígena do Parque do Xingu, já que existe uma publicação em que consta de fato que ele teve acesso, fez pesquisas, catalogou 93 plantas, identificou processos, enfim, identificou, no mínimo, recursos naturais com grande potencial de amanhã se transformarem em ativos e serem comercializados e patenteados no mercado internacional.

MÁRIO LÚCIO AVELAR, federal prosecutor for the State of Mato Grosso: He explained that federal investigation now underway began with the receipt of a complaint from FUNAI, as well as one from its internal auditor, Dr. Regina, with respect to a possible case of biopiracy in the Xingu Indigenous National Park. He said it is undeniable that Marcus, father of the person who represents the Amazon Conservation Team in Brazil, during a certain period had access to traditional knowledge of the indigenous community in the Xingu preserve, given that there exists a publication which states that he had had access, carried out research, catalogued 93 plants, identified legal proceedings and, in short, at the very least identified natural resources with great future potential as commercial assets to be patented internationally.

Apontou as lacunas existentes na legislação, visto que não existe tipificação do crime de biopirataria, o que leva, segundo ele, à aplicação, de forma subsidiária, da Lei de Crimes Ambientais (Lei 9.605/98). Discorreu sobre os problemas estruturais dos órgãos indigenista e ambiental, apontando as deficiências do Estado brasileiro como uma das causas da não sustentabilidade das comunidades indígenas, que, em contato com a comunidade envolvente, acaba por aumentar suas demandas por bens de consumo, que funcionam como moeda de troca. Para ele, o que a ACT fez foi, na verdade, uma coleta de informações que o povo do Xingu, as comunidades indígenas, as comunidades tradicionais, ao longo dos anos, de milênios, conquistaram, adquiriram pelo seu convívio com a natureza, sua forma tradicional, sua especificidade de povo diferenciado.

He pointed out gaps in the existing laws, given that no crime of biopiracy is currently defined, which leads, he says, to the use of the Law of Environmental Crimes (1998) in a roundabout way. He lectured on the structural problems of the environmental and indigenous affairs agencies, pointing to the deficiencies of the Brazilian State as one of the causes of the non-sustainability of indigenous communities, which, when it comes into contact with the surrounding community, winds up increasing its demands for consumer goods, which serve as a medium of exchange. In his view, what ACT did was, in fact, a collection of information that the people of Xingu, the indigenous communities and traditional communities, over the milennia, managed to create through their close coexistence with nature, their traditional ways of life, and their specificity as a differentiated people.

Alegou que, diante do amplo universo de demandas das comunidades indígenas, que perpassa por problemas de educação, saúde, defesa de seus territórios e mesmo os produtivos, não consegue entender como se elege como prioridade a elaboração de uma mapa cultural, do qual a comunidade desconhece a utilidade. Quando questionado acerca do interesse dos indígenas em manter a relação existente com a ACT, relatou uma reunião ocorrida no Parque do Xingu, com a presença do presidente da FUNAI, em que 14 grupos indígenas afirmaram não querer a ACT no parque indígena, à exceção de uma liderança.

He charged that given the wide array of demands from indigenous communities, which include problems of education, health, territorial defense and even problems of economic production, he cannot understand how the preparation of an ethnographic map, whose use the community does not understand, could be the highest priority. Asked about the interest of indigenous peoples in maintaining a relationship with ACT, he recounted an incident that took place in Xingu National Park, with the president of FUNAI in attendance, in which 14 indigenous groups said they do not want ACT in the park, with the exception of one leader.

Além das suspeitas que pairam sobre a organização, a principal motivação dos indígenas foi o não cumprimento das promessas de benefícios materiais. Falou, também, do envolvimento do Poder constituído, na Amazônia Legal, com atividades ilegais de saque dos recursos naturais. Exemplificou a situação com o Estado do Mato Grosso, onde 90% da madeira é extraída mediante corrupção nos órgãos de fiscalização e mediante o saque mesmo de recursos naturais extraídos de terras indígenas. Disponibilizou para a CPI algumas informações extraídas de sites em que se demonstra a relação estabelecida entre a ACT e interesses de indústrias farmacêuticas estrangeiras, indústrias farmacêuticas alienígenas, que, para ele, estão bancando essa organização não-govermental para a obtenção de conhecimentos.

Besides the suspicions that haunt this organization, the main reason cited by the natives was its failure to keep promises involving material benefits. He also spoke of the involvement of the elected government in Amazônia with illegal activities such as the plunder of natural resources. As an example, he cited the State of Mato Grosso, where 90% of the hardwood is extracted through corruption of the oversight agencies and even the plunder of natural resources from indigenous lands. He provided the CPI with information extracted from Web sites that show the established relationship between ACT and foreign pharmaceutical interests, which, in his view, are banking this NGO in order to obtain knowledge.

Citou uma entrevista do Sr. Mark Plotkin, presidente da ACT, em que ele declara seu interesse em acessar conhecimentos tradicionais associados à biodiversidade. Ressaltou a existência de uma regulamentação e de órgãos responsáveis pela autorização de acesso, restando às pessoas interessadas em agir corretamente formalizar um processo, submetê-lo ao órgão, apresentar seus estudos, que, com certeza vão ser deferidos.

He cited an interview with Mark Plotkin, president of ACT, in which Plotkin declares his interest in accessing traditional knowledge relating to biodiversity. He stressed that there are regulations and oversight bodies that must authorize such access, so that it is up to persons who want to act correctly to submit a formal request to the agency and present their studies, which will certainly be approved.

Considera o caso ACT preocupante e digno de uma medida preventiva, especialmente por parte do Ministério Público, por envolver a presença de pessoas no interior de terra indígena, de forma não autorizada pela FUNAI, tendo como agravantes os antecedentes das pessoas envolvidas, as relações que se estabelecem a partir de informes com empresas estrangeiras e as constantes viagens para o exterior realizadas pelos integrantes da ONG, muitos deles estrangeiros.

He considers the ACT case worrying and worthy of a preventive measure, especially on the part of the Public Ministry, because it involves the presence of outsiders on native lands in a manner not authorized by FUNAI, aggravated by the past history of the persons inolved, their relations with foreign corporations and the constant travel abroad by members of the NGO, many of them foreigners.

Declarou não haver nenhum inquérito policial tramitando a respeito disso, mas existir uma investigação por parte do Ministério Público que não possibilita afirmar a ocorrência de acesso ao conhecimento tradicional associado ou bioprospecção. O último andamento do processo foi a solicitação de uma série de documentos à ACT. Afirmou que a ACT continua adentrando em terra indígena, e apontou a existência de uma contradição entre um ato da FUNAI que coíbe o ingresso e um ato do Ministro da Justiça que reconheceu a organização não-governamental como uma organização apta, capaz de trabalhar com a questão indígena e desenvolver projetos e ações, serviços junto à comunidade indígena.

He said there has never been a police inquiry into these matters, but there is a prosecutorial investigation that has not established definitively that bioprospecting took place. The last step in that investigation was requesting a series of documents from ACT. He said ACT continues to enter indigenous territory and pointed to a contradiction between an agreement it signed with FUNAI and an agreement it signed with the Ministry of Justice, which recognized the NGO as legitimate, qualified to work in the area of indigenous affairs and develop projects, actions and services jointly with indigenous peoples.

Encerrou dizendo ser preciso afastar a essa ONG das comunidades indígenas, pelo menos enquanto persistir a dúvida.

He closed by saying that this NGO must be kept out of indigenous communities at least so long as these doubts are unresolved.

Next, the Son of the Monkeyman, the head of ACT Brasil, gets his turn in the hot seat.