A government decree regulating access to genetic resources has angered Brazilian environmental groups, in part because it allows the government to grant such access even if indigenous communities object. The environmental organizations also criticize the decree as an attempt to wrest control of genetic-resources legislation from Congress, which plans to draft its own law based on three bills under consideration in that body. Issued June 30, the decree marks the latest attempt in Latin America to regulate access to organisms ranging from fungi to plants. In the process, it tries to strike a balance between indigenous communities’ claims of knowledge rights to such resources and pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to tap these resources in their search for new products. In fact, the new decree was... [Log in to read more]