Rachel P. Wynberg is a South African biodiversity researcher and

natural scientist Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

who is a professor at the department of

Environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

and

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

Sciences at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

Life and work

Education

At the University of Cape Town, Wynberg earned a BSc in zoology, MSc in marine biology and a MPhil in environmental science. She went on to obtain a PhD in environmental science at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

in Scotland.

Research

She advises governments, civil organisations and international agencies and is actively involved with policy debates and initiatives throughout southern Africa. Her work concerns the taking and using of biological entities from indigenous people without proper acknowledgement or compensation. Specifically, "Biopiracy is the misappropriation of traditional knowledge and biodiversity through the patent system... It's been prevalent for centuries in Southern Africa". One instance that she has cited concerned the

San people The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200 ...

An African example of
biopiracy Biopiracy (also known as scientific colonialism ) is the unauthorized appropriation of knowledge and genetic resources of farming and indigenous communities by individuals or institutions seeking exclusive monopoly control through patents or in ...
is the case of the
Hoodia ''Hoodia'' (; known locally as "ghaap" or "bobbejaanghaap") is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae, under the subfamily Asclepiadoideae, native to Southern Africa. One species of ''Hoodia'' in particular, '' Hoodia gordonii'' ...
succulent plant, which grows in the
Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid climate, semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African ...
. For generations the San people have used it as an appetite and thirst suppressant. But in 1996 the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the hunger-suppressing chemical component in Hoodia and patented it. The CSIR licensed the UK-based Phytopharm for further development. None of the projected royalties were earmarked for the San. In fact, a Phytopharm spokesperson said that the CSIR had led him to believe that the San people were "extinct". In a victory against biopiracy, the CSIR eventually signed an agreement to recognise and reward the San as holders of traditional knowledge.

Wynberg chaired part of the First International Meeting Against Biopiracy, held at the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

in Paris and attended by representatives from 15 countries including indigenous groups, attorneys, academic researchers and entrepreneurs. The goal of the meeting was to explore the complexities of biopiracy and the threat it poses to cultural and biological diversity. The meeting was hosted by a group of French

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, under the leadership of the former first lady of France,

Danielle Mitterrand Danielle Émilienne Isabelle Mitterrand (née Gouze; 29 October 1924 – 22 November 2011) was the wife of French President François Mitterrand, and president of the . Life Danielle Émilienne Isabelle Gouze was born on 29 October 1924 in Ver ...

Distinctions

Wynberg was elected a member of the

Academy of Science of South Africa The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is the national science academy in South Africa. It was started in 1996, and encompasses all fields of scientific work. Its legal foundation is the ''Academy of Science of South Africa Act'', Act ...

in 2018.

Selected publications

* * * * . *

References

External links

Publications
at

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynberg, Rachel Living people South African scientists Members of the Academy of Science of South Africa Year of birth missing (living people) South African academics South African women academics South African women activists Biodiversity of South Africa