But developing countries fear that if the applications for patents are successful, other multinationals will also begin developing similar technologies. Half the world's farmers are poor. They provide food for more than one billion people but they can't afford to buy seeds every growing season. Many farmers groups from developing countries say this move to put a monetary value on life through patents, intellectual property rights and plant breeder rights violates the principle which communities have used to survive and conserve diversity for centuries.
Many Northern groups agree.
The CBD, a legally-binding document, was created in 1993 in order to stop the destruction of biological diversity and secure its conservation and sustainable use. But less than a year after the Convention came into force, the World Trade Organization was established with a totally different agenda. This agreement excludes plants and animals from being patented, but not plant varieties. A growing number of campaigners from both developed and developing countries say this is nothing short of theft. Exploiting loopholes in international rules governing property rights, companies and researchers have claimed patent rights for a number of plant varieties which they have modified little, if at all.