What developing tropical nations are saying is that if the West cries foul over piracy of intellectual property, say, or computer software, then "biopiracy" in Western labs of jungle extracts should also be considered a high economic crime.

With fears of biopiracy—the illegal collection of forest materials for economic gain—at an all-time high in the Amazon, Brazil is poised to adopt new controls as the world's bio-engineering companies race to patent and profit from Amazonia's diversity.