For those of you who are interested, the Intellectual Property Watch blog has a posting on biodiversity protection, especially how Brazil (and other developing countries) see the issue - "Brazil Fights To Make Case For International Biodiversity Protection":
Brazil has arguably the earth’s richest source of biological diversity, and it is fighting to get help at the international level to protect those natural resources from what it says is unfair exploitation through patents by companies and others in and outside Brazil.
While industry argues that the Brazilian law regulating the use of genetic resources is sufficient to safeguard against misuse, the government argues that people - mainly foreigners - are still disrespecting the law and there is a need for an international regime regulating the use of genetic material.
I won't summarize the rest of the article. But, if you want to understand this topic, the posting is a good review of where the issue stands today.
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