KEY POINTS:
For his life's work in the Amazon, Time magazine elected Marc van Roosmalen, a Dutch primatologist, as one of the Heroes of the Planet.
But even though his groundbreaking research led to the discovery of five species of monkey and a new primate genus, this year he was
arrested and sentenced to almost 16 years in jail.
He is now out on bail, pending an appeal, but the impact on scientific research has been chilling.
The Brazilian Government has also caused outrage in the international scientific community. Van Roosmalen's crime was keeping orphaned monkeys (whose parents were slain by hunters) in a monkey refuge at his home in the Amazon without the appropriate permits.
Field research requires approval from up to five government agencies in Brazil. And it can take up to two years to get them.
Last month, at a biologist conference in Latin America, 287 scientists from 30 countries signed a petition saying van Roosmalen's jailing was "indicative of a trend of governmental repression of scientists in Brazil".
It is widely speculated that bribes from the timber extraction and soya industries led to his arrest and conviction because of his high-profile activism on the Amazon rain forest.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature is now championing his cause in order to bring international attention to the issue.
Brazilian scientists are also furious at the Government's behaviour.
"Research needs to be stimulated, not criminalised," Enio Candotti, a physicist who has been the president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, the country's leading scientific body, for the past four years, told the New York Times.
"Instead, we have a situation in which overzealous bureaucrats consider everyone guilty unless they can prove their innocence."
The petition by the world community of biologists also warned that the treatment of van Roosmalen is unduly harsh and is "already discouraging biological research in Brazil, both by Brazilian scientists and by potential international donors."
It is not the first time van Roosmalen, a naturalised Brazilian, has fallen foul of the authorities. In 2002, the Government accused him of violating laws on animal capture and custody and confiscated 31 animals from his home.
Brazilian officials insist they are simply protecting the country's vast natural and genetic patrimony from bio-piracy. There is a long and inglorious history of genetic material as well as animals and plants being taken out.
Brazilian folk memory still rankles at the memory of Sir Henry Wickham, the botanist and explorer, who removed rubber seeds from the country. They were taken to Ceylon and Malaya causing a collapse in the Brazilian rubber market.
More recently the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Meyers Squibb extracted venom from the Brazilian jararaca or pit viper to help develop the drug capoten. Brazil claims it is owed royalties for the drug, which is widely used to fight heart failure.
Brazilian Indian tribes have also complained that samples of their blood, taken under circumstances they say were unethical, are being used in genetic research around the world without permission.
Brazilian efforts to end bio-piracy have gone overboard, scientists complain. They say they are vague and give too much power to local officials.
There is now a widespread presumption that many foreign researchers are engaged in bio-piracy.
"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," Candotti said. "The result is paranoia and a disaster for science. There are Talebans in the Government who say they are defending the national interest, but they end up weakening and hurting it."
Despite his citizenship, van Roosmalen was tried as a foreigner, initially denied the right to appeal against his maximum jail sentence and sent to a notoriously dangerous prison.
"This trial was conducted in a completely irregular fashion, and on trumped-up charges," said Miguel Barrella, one of van Roosmalen's lawyers. "They couldn't prove the biopiracy accusations, so they concocted a series of spurious accusations, such as the unauthorised lodging of monkeys at his home."
In the late 1990s, van Roosmalen gained international recognition after discovering up to 20 new species in the central Amazon region.
"It's not that I'm so special. The fact is that since the 1800s nobody did any work like I'm doing in the last five years," he said at the time.
He said he'd been lucky to work in a little-explored region near the confluence of the Madeira and Tapajos rivers. The flood plain region is like a landlocked archipelago where dozens of crisscrossing rivers serve as natural barriers, allowing once-similar species to evolve differently over the course of many thousands of years.
Though the monkeys were not threatened with extinction, van Roosmalen was working to guarantee their survival. He offered to name his discoveries after donors who would pay to help create nature reserves in the region.
- Independent
