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NATURAL RESOURCES
How do the northern and southern views of biodiversity differ?
Industrialized countries view the world as a giant market. in order to satiate their demand for hardwood furniture and paper goods, they encourage Third World countries to strive for increased financial gain from crops by planting high-yield, fast-growing varieties instead of the natural diversity of species. Indigenous communities, on the other hand, have traditionally lived harmoniously within their ecosystems, using the biodiversity of the forests sustainably, and allowing developed countries free access to forest resources.
Northern countries, always seeking economic gain, are trying to legally monopolize gene patents over plants, animals, and genes in the most recent round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the set of trade rules that governs the economic activities of most of the world. If they succeed, multinational agrochemical corporations would be allowed to patent and "own" valuable life forms, often found with the assistance of indigenous people in their own forests, not only denying them financial compensation, but forcing them to pay royalties on products derived from these resources!
This unjust Northern monopolization of developing country crops, and potentially the global food supply, must be stopped. Developing countries, and particularly indigenous forest people, should be compensated both for preserving biodiversity and for the resources they provide to the first world. Industrialized countries must assist in this preservation both by transferring finances and biotechnology to the south and by reducing their consumption of material goods.