Africa and South America: The future entails biodiversity

Abstract

This article aims to show that Africa and South America could benefit more from the resources of their tropical forests. This is because the biodiversity strongly present on both continents is the basis for the development of many drugs, pesticides, and other products of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, which, however, are located mainly in the most developed regions of the planet. The article lists the authors who have addressed this issue and proposes measures that could transform these poorer continents from mere suppliers of plant-based knowledge into important pharmaceutical manufacturers. It claims that biotechnology will be one of the most important disciplines less than thirty years from now, but depends on the knowledge found in the plants, which is the reason why biodiversity is so important. And it also discusses how biopiracy harms both regions, although because of the recent Nagoya Protocol, there are fortunately new tools to eliminate this huge problem.