On the access to and the exploitation of Brazilian biodiversity: yes, we have banana

Abstract

Review of Bill 7735 of 2014, known as the "biodiversity legal framework", then approved and sent for presidential assent. The author states that she does not address the constitutionality, legality or lawfulness of the matter, leaving the merits to specific studies. She describes the structure of the bill, with 51 articles organised in nine chapters, and points to the enabling of scientific research on non-human genetic heritage and associated traditional knowledge, through registration, authorisation or notification. She details the regime of Chapter V, which applies to the economic exploitation of reproductive material or of finished products and is concentrated in the last link of the production chain, with a monetary modality of 1% of annual net revenue, reducible to 0.1% by sectoral agreement, and a negotiated modality where associated traditional knowledge is identifiable. She records the exemptions provided for micro-enterprises, family farmers, domesticated exotic species and transactions involving intellectual property rights, and the repeal of Provisional Measure 2.186-16 of 2001. She observes that the charge would fall on the seed and not on the grain, a point she describes as questionable under intellectual property and plant variety protection law, and lists the expected results of the regulation.