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Biopiracy of Biodiversity: Global Exchange as Enclosure (review)

Andrew Mushita and Carol B. Thompson. Biopiracy of Biodiversity: Global Exchange as Enclosure Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2007. xiv + 330 pp. Map. Tables. Notes. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. $29.95. Paper. This book traces attempts by global private corporations, with the backing of states in the North, to monopolize Africa's biodiversity, particularly in seeds. It argues that these initiatives from outside form a key source of food insecurity, poverty, and low productivity, leading to the degradation of local survival strategies. The 330-page book is structured in three parts. The first part examines the contradictory processes of biopiracy alongside traditions of sharing seeds, the latter pointing to principles for the future. The sec- ond part details the various mechanisms used to enclose biodiversity and the management of landscapes for seed. The last part explores the future options for enhancing biodiversity by utilizing intertwining strategies, and how Africa could return to food security. The argument traces how African food security has been undermined for centuries by slavery and colonial resource extraction. These legacies are aggravated by current Western policies, in which industrial agriculture, imbalanced trade, and aid all contribute to the privatization of agricultural resources, which encourages monocultures that require homogenized but unsustainable production systems in the South. Neoliberal ideologies, particularly structural adjustment policies, have also weakened state capacities to regulate external actors. The loss of seed diversity has disastrous effects on the poor. Furthermore, the market-based policies proposed by Western institutions undermine the local expertise and local institutions essential to the survival of local communities - especially during times of drought and increasingly adverse climate. Backed by inequitable international laws on intellectual property rights, efforts to expand corporate monopolies over plants and animals have undermined any broad-based participation of communities in managing biodiversity on the basis of collective principles. The study shows how in southern Africa unequal access to land in the face of historical injustices, and the lack of adequate services and fair commodity prices, have all undermined food security, particularly affecting small farmers. The book traces the historical role of the state in land dispossession in North America, Australia, and southern Africa, and in land redistribution in southeast Asia and Central America. …