The growing exploitation of biological and other natural resources by food, medical and healthfood markets is creating an unprecedented threat to the diversity of cultural, biological and other natural resources. Natives of areas of great biological diversity have contributed to the development and preservation of the unique knowledge of their ecosystems. But the ways in which these natural resources may be used is still insufficiently regulated. Some companies take advantage of the legal void to appropriate indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge through patents. They thus deny the prior existence of traditional knowledge, and keep all the profits of the added value to themselves. The Collective for an Alternative to Biopiracy supports indigenous peoples in defending their rights and traditions against the economic and moral injustice that is accelerating the erosion of their shared heritage of cultural, biological and other natural resources.