As Brazil Defends Its Bounty, Rules Ensnare Scientists

RIO DE JANEIRO — Marc van Roosmalen is a world-renowned primatologist whose research in the Amazon has led to the discovery of five species of monkeys and a new primate genus. But precisely because of that work, Dr. van Roosmalen was recently sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison and jailed in Manaus, Brazil.

Marc van Roosmalen, with monkeys of a type he discovered.

A green palm viper.

Earlier in August, his lawyers managed to get him freed while they appeal his conviction on charges stemming from an investigation into alleged biopiracy. But scientists here and abroad are outraged, and they describe the case as only the most glaring example of laws and government policies they say are xenophobic and increasingly stifling scientific inquiry.

Research needs to be stimulated, not criminalized, said Enio Candotti, a physicist who has been the president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, the countrys leading scientific body, for the last four years. Instead, we have a situation in which overzealous bureaucrats consider everyone guilty unless they can prove their innocence.

At a biologists conference in Mexico last month, 287 scientists from 30 countries signed a petition saying that the jailing of Dr. van Roosmalen was indicative of a trend of governmental repression of scientists in Brazil.

The treatment of him, they warned, is unduly harsh and is already discouraging biological research in Brazil, both by Brazilian scientists and by potential international donors.

Brazils government officials say they have no vendetta against the scientists and are merely trying to protect the nations natural and genetic patrimony; they also declined to talk about the van Roosmalen case.

Fears of biopiracy, loosely defined as any unauthorized acquisition or transport of genetic material or live flora and fauna, are deep and longstanding in Brazil. Nearly a century ago, for example, the Amazon rubber boom collapsed after Sir Henry Wickham, a British botanist and explorer, spirited rubber seeds out of Brazil and sent them to colonies in Ceylon and Malaya (now Sri Lanka and Malaysia), which quickly dominated the international market.

In the 1970s, the Squibb pharmaceutical company used venom from the Brazilian arrowhead viper to help develop captopril, used to treat hypertension and congestive heart failure, without payment of the royalties Brazilians think are due them. And more recently, Brazilian Indian tribes have complained that samples of their blood, taken under circumstances they say were unethical, were being used in genetic research around the world.

Brazil has in recent years passed legislation to curb such practices. National sentiment favors the laws, but scientists complain that they go too far, are too vague, confer too much power on authorities who have no scientific knowledge and have created a presumption that every researcher is engaged in biopiracy.

We wanted to protect the environment and traditional knowledge, but the legislation is so restrictive that it has given rise to abuses and a lack of common sense, Dr. Candotti said. The result is paranoia and a disaster for science. There are Talibans in the government who say they are defending the national interest, but they end up weakening and hurting it.

To engage in field research in Brazil, authorization from as many as five government agencies may be required. Though the law mandates a response within 90 days, scientists say approval may be delayed for up to two years because the agencies lack budget and staff, particularly employees with knowledge of the scientific method.

That has led to a situation in which many researchers often go ahead with their work on the assumption that it will eventually be approved. Dr. Candotti estimated that up to half the field research conducted in Brazil may be technically irregular, but the jailing of Dr. van Roosmalen, whom Time magazine designated one of its Heroes for the Planet in 2000 because of his work in the Amazon, has caused many researchers to pause and reassess their own situations.

If they can get him on trumped-up charges, they can get any of us, said one scientist based in Manaus, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of fear that future research projects will be rejected. Everyone bends the rules, because they are so onerous that you would never be able to get any work done if you followed them to the letter.

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