The controversy takes place when the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) is accused of engaging in unethical forms of bioprospecting by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous organizations who accuse the ICBG of biopiracy.

The ICBG wants to extract and document the medicinal plants and herbs of the Indigenous Maya people of Chiapas, Mexico to gain their "ethnobotanical knowledge" and develop medical products.

The term "bioprospecting" is coined in response to the international research team taking Indigenous botanical knowledge for potential commercial use.