PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #38: The Human Spirit in Landscape Restoration.
Presiding: D. Borland
Tuesday, August 6. 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM. Greenlee Meeting Room, TCC.

A Natural Patent system for biodiversity preservation and cognitive restructuring of the humanity/nature paradigm.

Alsten, Christopher^*,1, ¹ Inner Health, Inc, San Diego, CA

ABSTRACT- Humans act as though they create de novo and protect and retain an interest in such creation with patents, copyrights and other laws to reward the creator. However, much of what is "created" has been copied, directly or indirectly, from nature, humans having assumed the "right to copy". Furthermore, the word "patent" means open, evident, accessible and commercially, "protected interest by revealing". Nature has been exceedingly open and accessible; revealing everything, when appropriately asked, and has allowed us to copy, but has not received any protection, interest or any form of reaffirmation. This imbalance in the cyclical flow of energies, materials and information lies beneath our current problems at the physical, fiscal and psychological level. Our most biodiverse areas have been characterized pejoratively as jungles instead of being seen as libraries, laboratories and more. These jungles have been exploited and cleared to "develop" the land. However, development actually means, taking the envelope off to reveal what is in fact present. This has not been done. One approach to start correcting this imbalance is to create a comprehensive "Natural Patent" system that would underlie the current patent system. Appropriate natural intellectual property royalties flowing back to preserved regions would make it economically more viable to conserve them due to global royalty rights than to exploit them non-renewably. Such a system would also help cognitively restructure our perception of nature to reflect its fundamental importance. Individuals will be advised they are paying a royalty on products via suitable indicia. This feedback system will cause a psychological shift, creating a sense of being in a cycle with nature instead of incorrectly and unconsciously believing that one is outside of nature. Individuals will feel a sense of being a "shareholder" in nature. The presentation will encompass the energy, material and information flows at the physical, fiscal and analogous psychological levels, the psychological implications of the "Natural Patent" concept, how it can help shift the current humanity/nature paradigm and, how political entities, indigenous peoples, and NGOs could pragmatically work towards this end. The issue of global reparations to deal with the cumulative imbalance will also be addressed.

KEY WORDS: biodiversity, preservation, intellectual property, psychology