In 1997, the village of Pattuvam in Kannur District of Kerala, India, created history. They declared their absolute ownership over all the genetic materials currently growing within the village area. They announced that biodiversity belonged to the current and future generations of the village. Nobody could access the genetic material without the people’s permission.
A year earlier, concerned about reports of foreign companies patenting Indian plant varieties like neem and basmati rice, the young men of Pattuvam decided to protect their biodiversity. They formed a group called Gramavedi for this purpose. More than 100 youth joined Gramavedi as volunteers. They took the help of scientists, local farmers, and ayurvedic doctors. They received guidance from Unnikrishnan, a local botanist and school teacher, who had researched the plants in most of the sacred groves of Kerala and become an outstanding authority on the subject.
The group surveyed and recorded the genetic material found in the region. They discovered many species in each category: 26 varieties of rice, 93 different birds, 30 fish species, 80 types of butterflies, and so on. Most important, they recorded 14 mammals and 366 plant species including rare medicinal ones. Gramavedi prepared a People’s Biodiversity Register listing all the species. To ensure protection, they did not mention the scientific names or the locations of medicinal plants. They made only one copy of the Register and kept it in the safe custody of the panchayat.
As Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation reported it, “In a symbolic and intensely moving ceremony held on April 9, 1997, the register was handed over by an ancient farmer to a young child of the village who in turn handed it over to Ms. Kamalakshi, the village sarpanch (village head), for safeguarding and protection of the interests of the community and future generations.”
The village also set up a Forum for the Protection of People’s Biodiversity, which would henceforth have to be consulted by any person or company who seeks access to the register and the genetic material it lists.
The Pattuvam declaration has been hailed as the first ever attempt by a rural population at preserving their biodiversity and protecting it from being exploited by outsiders. The people of Pattuvam showed the way to protect the world’s biodiversity. Their story also raised hopes that people of the poorer countries can prevent their biodiversity from being exploited by multinational companies.
Inspired by the Pattuvam example, the idea of People’s Biodiversity Register became popular. In India and elsewhere, a number of villages have prepared such documents and asserted their rights.
Afterword: I am unable to trace the current status of the Pattuvam Register and related activities. I did find out that the National Biodiversity Authority set up in 2003 provides guidelines for the preparation of people’s biodiversity registers.
The initiative of as many as 100 youth culminating in the preparation of the first biodiversity register which was presented to the sarpanch in the moving manner described is very hope giving. However, the fact that even after 23 years of this ceremony and most of the country seem to be ignorant of it. This even with the National Biodiversity Authority setting up guidelines 17 years ago. Obviously the Govt. is either not convinced of its value or has come under the influence of vested interests. Before the MNC’s stifle such efforts ‘we the people’ should take it upon ourselves to popularize this essentially critical development for securing the future.
Thanks, Ravi, for your comments
This is yet another example of how we tend to neglect local initiatives. What is the use of bolting the door when thieves have made with their booty. It is not surprising if government is insensitive to such initiatives as they have many more priorities with vested interests. But scientists and bureaucrats are the ones that can act by seeing such initiatives. If the intelligentsia cannot work, then why blame the politicians. With globalisation, it is easy for the outsiders to usurp upon anything that is invaluable and not theirs. We are callous and complacent as we never think of respecting natural resources. Time has come that we have to stop and think of what is good, for u,s in the long run.
Inspiring story, hope motivated people protect such resources before poachers confiscate it!