Is Nature’s DNA Being Stolen? The Battle Over Biopiracy
Is Nature’s DNA Being Stolen? The Battle Over Biopiracy
Is the global north exploiting nature’s genetic treasures from the global south without paying a dime? The battle over biopiracy raises this uncomfortable question.
The silent extraction of genetic data from the biodiversity-rich global south has sparked a fierce debate over the ethics of biopiracy. As companies like Basecamp Research harvest genetic material from remote locations, this information is transformed into digital sequences that feed AI models, leading to lucrative discoveries without compensation to the source nations.
The upcoming global biodiversity summit in Colombia will attempt to address this issue, yet tensions run high. Nations rich in biodiversity, but poor in wealth, demand a share of the profits from the natural resources that are integral to groundbreaking medical and environmental innovations.
While companies enjoy free access to these digital sequences, the affected countries are left questioning: who truly benefits from nature’s bounty? The debate now centers on whether global agreements can balance commercial interests with fair compensation—or will biopiracy continue unchecked?
Read the full article on The Guardian.
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Dr. Mark van Rijmenam
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is The Digital Speaker, a world-leading futurist and global AI keynote speaker who helps leaders decide what AI, and the technologies that follow it, mean for their business. He speaks to leadership teams at their retreats and to conference audiences worldwide, and his WAVE framework gives them a way of deciding that they keep using long after he has left the room. His Intelligence Age Scorecard measures how ready an organization is across the four WAVE pillars.
He holds a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney, is a Certified Speaking Professional and Global Speaking Fellow, and ranks among the world’s top futurists on the Global Gurus list (#1 in 2025, #3 in 2026). Salesforce named him one of its 16 leading AI voices. He has written six books, most recently Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, writes the Synthetic Minds newsletter on Substack, and founded Futurwise. Talk to his digital twin on WhatsApp: +1 (830) 463-6967.
