Biopiracy started with a bounce
2008; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 451; Issue: 7182 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/4511055a
ISSN1476-4687
Autores ResumoSome people call it the original act of 'biopiracy.' In 1876, Henry Wickham, a selftrained rubber tapper under contract to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London collected 70,000 highly perishable Hevea rubber seeds from Santarém in Brazil.Wickham rushed them on a steam ship to Kew, where the seeds were immediately germinated and sent to the British colonies in India.The resulting plantations broke the Amazon rubber monopoly and dominated the rapidly growing market until Japan seized the plantations in the Second World War, and synthetic rubber was invented.The Thief at the End of the World chronicles the life of the audacious Wickham, who fled the London cholera epidemics to become a tropical adventurer and planter.Joe Jackson's strong investigative and story-telling skills conjure up the colour and characters of Wickham's meandering path through the British colonies and beyond.Wickham encountered natural threats -malaria, parasites, injuries and floods.And he faced human difficulties -slave traders, murderous jungle barons, cannibal tribes, financial ruin and the deaths of family members whom he convinced to join him in his quixotic quests.Somehow he bounced back every time to cultivate his public image until he was knighted soon before his death in 1928.Kew's leaders pioneered public-private partnerships between collectors, government botanists and the colonial plantations.But they held Wickham, a freelancer, in contempt.They expected him to fail in his contract to deliver even 1,000 viable seeds for £10 (US$20), and were shocked by his success, in view of numerous failures by established collectors.Wickham apparently succeeded because of his years working as a planter and rubber tapper alongside locals.Kew honoured its financial commitment to Wickham, yet denied him any recognition, and foolishly rejected his offer to help cultivate rubber in Asia, delaying the plantation
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