Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- Meeting review: WIPO IGC 25
- Funding opportunity: CBD Alliance supports participation to upcoming CBD meetings
- This week in review … Indigenous conference focuses on watershed protection and water rights
- This week in review … Indigenous knowledge helps in quest for anti-cancer compounds
- This week in review … IUFRO Third Latin American Congress stresses TK value in climate change fight
- This week in review … IUCN REDD+ project in Indonesia supports customary land mapping
- This week in review … Universities to document fishermen's knowledge in India
Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:09 AM PDT WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, 25th session The meeting focused on traditional cultural expressions; it also took stock of progress made on the texts on traditional knowledge and on genetic resources. On traditional cultural expressions, intense substantive examination addressed four fundamental issues: defining "traditional cultural expressions", identifying the beneficiaries of protection, framing the scope of rights and carving out appropriate exceptions and limitations. The revised draft text of an international legal instrument on intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions, as well as a "Report of the proposals made by delegations regarding future work of the IGC, following the review and stocktaking conducted under agenda item 7, as at the close of the session on July 24, 2013" will be submitted to the WIPO General Assembly to be held from 23 September to 2 October 2013. As IGC Members were unable to agree on a recommendation on future work, the report of proposals outlines a number of options on the IGC's possible future mandate regarding how to conclude an international legal instrument(s) ensuring the effective protection of traditional cultural expressions, traditional knowledge and genetic resources. The major sticking point was the convening of a diplomatic conference in the 2014-2015 biennium. According to IP Watch, developing countries insist that only a diplomatic conference will push countries to an efficient political engagement, while developed countries argue the move is premature. The WIPO General Assembly will take stock of progress made and decide on convening a diplomatic conference. The session began with an indigenous panel under the theme "Indigenous peoples' perspectives on intellectual property protection for traditional cultural expressions: beneficiaries, subject matter, rights, and exceptions". Read the IGC 25 update by the WIPO Secretariat … Download the revised draft articles on the protection of traditional cultural expressions [pdf] … Download the report of proposals regarding future work [pdf] … Download the meeting's decisions [pdf] … Read the IP Watch article of 24 July 2013 … Read the IP Watch article of 25 July 2013 … |
Funding opportunity: CBD Alliance supports participation to upcoming CBD meetings Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:07 AM PDT Call for candidates supported participation in upcoming CBD meetings The CBD Alliance, a loose network of civil society organizations advocating for improved and informed participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) processes, offers funding for participation in the eighth meeting of the CBD Working Group on Article 8(j) (traditional knowledge) and the seventeenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 17), to be held from 7-11 October 2013 and 14-18 October 2013 respectively, in Montreal, Canada. The funding is open to civil society and indigenous peoples' representatives from countries of the global South, who are familiar with biodiversity issues and have a sustained interested in the CBD. The Board of the CBD Alliance will decide on the selected participants. It is expected that each selected participant will actively and fully participate in the proceedings, and in the activities of the CBD Alliance. The deadline for applications is strictly 10 August 2013. Read the CBD Alliance release, including application form … |
This week in review … Indigenous conference focuses on watershed protection and water rights Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:05 AM PDT Indigenous Cultures Team Up to Apply Ancient Wisdom to Today's World LONDON, UK: While many urbanized cultures turn almost exclusively to the modern world for direction and inspiration, and feel that the future will bring new answers to our existing problems, indigenous cultures especially in more natural surroundings are increasingly pulling from both the modern and the ancient worlds, seeing the "ancient world" not as something to move away from, but as something that continues to offer perennially useful examples, guidance, and solutions to problems. In northwestern Canada, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council is combining ancient values and beliefs about humanity's relationship with nature, with scientific techniques for the surveillance and analysis of the health of the area's waterways. The ninth biennial summit of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council was held from 2-4 August 2013 in Mayo, Yukon Territory, Canada, and served as an opportunity to learn about the diverse watershed, make important decisions about watershed protection, ensure continuing efforts to preserve and protect the Yukon River, and form a worldwide network of indigenous knowledge. Read the article … Visit the Summit website … |
This week in review … Indigenous knowledge helps in quest for anti-cancer compounds Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:04 AM PDT First Nation knowledge aids in quest for anti-cancer compounds ALBERTA, CANADA: In the native prairie grasses of southern Alberta, University of Lethbridge biological sciences researcher Dr. Roy Golsteyn is looking for new cancer treatments – and by inviting help from First Nations traditional knowledge practitioners, he is hoping his quest is significantly aided. The project is the first search for anti-cancer agents based on First Nations traditional knowledge within Alberta. In a meeting with Piikani Nation elder Conrad Littleleaf, Golsteyn came to an important realization: combining his quest for a new anti-cancer compound with Littleleaf's traditional First Nations knowledge could be key in a critical discovery. Read the article … |
This week in review … IUFRO Third Latin American Congress stresses TK value in climate change fight Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:02 AM PDT Scientists seek out forest traditions in climate change fight SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA: Traditional knowledge has helped people adapt to a changing world since the dawn of humankind, said researchers at the Third Latin American Congress of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), held from 12-15 June 2013, in San José, Costa Rica. As climate change threatens the livelihoods of forest people, scientists are tuning their ears to the myths, stories and songs with which people hand down traditional forest-related knowledge from generation to generation. Miguel Pinedo-Vásquez, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has seen some of those practices first-hand in riverside communities in the Amazon. "Smallholder production systems are inherently adaptable, because people have always had to deal with environmental variability and change in order to provide goods for their families," Pinedo-Vásquez said in a presentation on "Forest Knowledge: An Amazonian Resource for Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Change." People living in Amazonian communities are not the only ones who use traditional knowledge, said Marco Fioravanti, in his presentation on "Wooden Heritage as a Reference Source for Studies on Traditional Knowledge." Teasing clues from the design of items from religious statues to timber-framed houses to chairs, Fioravanti studies the way in which woodworking technology has changed in response to changing needs and conditions. Read the blog post … |
This week in review … IUCN REDD+ project in Indonesia supports customary land mapping Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:00 AM PDT IUCN REDD+ Project in Indonesia Supports Customary Land Mapping JAKARTA, INDONESIA: In order to benefit from REDD+, Papua and West Papua Provinces in Indonesia have identified land rights and active participation of the community as key issues that need to be clarified and facilitated. Given this, IUCN's "Toward Pro-Poor REDD+" project, with funding from Denmark's Development Cooperation (Danida), has been working closely with the Samdhana Institute, the governments of Papua and West Papua Province, civil society and other NGOs to develop customary land rights maps. Approximately 21 customary areas have been mapped at the local level to identify who owns the land and rights on the land. These maps have proven to be useful tools for broader land and resources planning, dispute resolution, as well as explaining community rights to the younger generation. Capacity building, facilitated by the development of guidebooks and training workshops, has been an essential part of this mapping work. Read the release … |
This week in review … Universities to document fishermen's knowledge in India Posted: 07 Aug 2013 02:58 AM PDT Universities to document fishermen's knowledge KOCHI, INDIA: Eight hours before the tsunami hit the shores in 2004, fishermen in the coastal areas had sent across a message that the sea would come in. It was the elderly fishermen in the area who gave the warning listening to the sounds from the sea and the behaviour of animals in the water and on the land. But, for want of any scientific explanation, the warning fell on deaf ears. Realizing that this knowledge acquired by experience could be lost if not documented, the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos) and Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) have initiated projects to document the vast traditional knowledge. Read the article … |
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