Complaints Aboriginal leaders and local officials have blocked a plan by geneticists with the National Geographic Society to collect DNA from Q'eros remote tribe in Peru as part of the Genographic project, which seeks molecular clues to migrations of humanity worldwide. Population geneticist Spencer Wells, Genographic Project Director and other members of the expedition, planned to collect DNA in Q'eros communities tomorrow, May 7, in the current draft using DNA collected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
Now the expedition seems to go against the activists of local biodiversity. In a whirlwind of letters published this week, indigenous leaders say the scientists working with the National Geographic Genographic Project planned to collect DNA samples without follow local regulations and obtaining the appropriate consents. The officials met Wednesday in Cusco, Peru, to discuss the project and to grill a local guide and anthropologist hired by National Geographic.
In an e-mail to Science Insider, Wells said his team had verbal permission from leaders of both communities Q'eros to visit, and that complaints apparently came from a third community. "We canceled our visit to Q'eros until we found exactly what happened," he said.
Officials with the regional government of Cusco say that shipment violating a local ordinance on biological diversity that requires scientists to provide notarized proof of "free prior and informed consent" among other documents, before collecting the DNA. "There are several requirements that must meet National Geographic, and they have not done, "said Ninoska Rozas Palma, regional director for natural resources in Cusco in a telephone interview.
a copy of a letter to National Geographic President of the Regional Government, Spanish, was published by the Asociación para el Desarrollo Sostenible y Naturaleza (Asociación ANDES), a nonprofit Cusco who campaigned against "biopiracy" in the region. spokesman for the National Geographic Lucie McNeil said the organization has not received the letter and that it does not collect DNA without appropriate consent. The project follows a comprehensive ethical framework that includes policies against the patenting of DNA information or use it for medical research and the creation of a fund to help Aboriginal peoples.
Asociación ANDES also released a letter it says is from National Geographic guide for community members alerting them to the pending visit by the research team. The letter explains the purpose to understand the ethnic roots of the study, and promises a "fun" slide show "a projector and pretty pictures!" Although the letter does not explicitly state that the aim is to collect DNA, he said that the study is based on "written history combined with DNA (a chemical that we all have in our body which scientifically shown us our origins and family connections of centuries ago). "
" our concern is that this is how they called informed consent, because it goes to the against all basic principles of collecting DNA, "Alejandro Argumedo fees, research director Asociación ANDES. His group detailed their concerns here.
In an e-mail, Wells said the complaints were a surprise and it was not directly contacted by officials. Wells said the project has collected DNA in Peru since 07 and that "our reception was almost uniformly positive." He said his practice is to first get the permission of local leaders to introduce the project and after the presentation, follow up with explanations and individual consent before taking DNA samples orally. "It is only after all these steps are taken which plays swabbing would take place," he said.
Maria Luisa Guevara, a biologist at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of San Martin de Porres whose lab is working with Wells, said militants were "spread lies" about the research project. "There was a reaction from the local population, because we went for DNA, but the militants have turned into something totally evil, as we have planned to take liters of blood. It is just a buccal swab. "
Guevara said the expedition was considered important. "What we know from literature and oral tradition is that this group is very isolated, genetically more homogeneous. But if they do not want to have samples collected, they will not, period."
Argumedo said the Q'eros believe they are descendants of the first Inca: "This kind of research, scientifically well intentioned this may be, could have profound psychological consequences for the Inca identity Q'eros. If the results of genealogical study said that they are really in the northern Amazon, they are not who they think they are, the consequences could be very deep. "
the problem seems to have started with a complaint about the National Geographic study, detailed in a separate letter, the president of the community Q'eros Hatun Q'eros, Benito Apaza Machacca. the letter added that "the Nation Q'ero knows its history, its past, present and future is our culture and we Inca requires no genetic study said about who we are. We are Incas, we have always been and always will be! "
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