Todd Capson co-founded the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) in Panama, a respected bioprospecting project funded by the U.S. government. A biochemist with a Ph.D. from the University of Utah, Capson worked at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in the early 1990s before combining his chemistry skills with ecological conservation. Capson says he had an epiphany on a trip to Fiji, when a traditional healer used a plant concoction to cure a fungal infection resistant to Western drugs. He says the experience not only showed him the possibilities of bioprospecting and ethnobotany, but also the limits of Western reductionist thinking. Capson retrained at the University of Utah in natural products chemistry and joined forces with two other scientists there. He secured funding for the Panama ICBG and moved to Panama a decade ago to manage it. Currently, he is on sabbatical at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California. Capson spoke recently with EcoAméricas correspondent Steven Ambrus. [Log in to read more]

Would you like to Subscribe?