Access to medicinal plants is worth billions

[John K. Reid, Special Projects/Technology Editor, 3rd year Oklahoma College of Law student, 1-1-2009, American Indian Law Review, Volume 34, Number 1, “Biopiracy: The Struggle for Traditional Knowledge Rights,” , 6-30-24, EP] 

Biopiracy has become a growing problem due to the soaring sales of pharmaceuticals. The value of the world market for medicinal plants found by following leads given by indigenous and local communities has been estimated to be $43 billion.' Obtaining traditional knowledge increases the efficiency of the screening process for plants with medicinal properties by more than four hundred percent,' which is why Indigenous peoples' knowledge is so valuable. Without formal legal protection for indigenous communities, biopiracy is often a shortcut to massive profits without having to provide fair compensation to the original sources of the information.