Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- Meeting review: TK at Doha Climate Change Conference
- Meeting review: 7th session of the Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage
- This week in review … Córdoba seminar hears from FAO Director-General on value of underutilized crops, sustainable diets
- This week in review … Standoff remains on WTO IP talks
- This week in review … Article on South Africa's TK bill
- Funding opportunity: Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations
- This week in review … European Parliament discusses biopiracy
- Resource: Book on the Nagoya Protocol on ABS
Meeting review: TK at Doha Climate Change Conference Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:19 AM PST Doha Climate Change Conference Negotiations focused on ensuring the implementation of agreements reached at previous conferences. The package of "Doha Climate Gateway" decisions included amendments to the Kyoto Protocol to establish its second commitment period; termination of the AWG-KP, the AWG-LCA and negotiations under the Bali Action Plan; and agreement to consider loss and damage, "such as" institutional mechanism to address loss and damage in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. On REDD+, the COP decided to undertake a work programme on results-based finance, aiming to contribute to the ongoing efforts to scale up and improve the effectiveness of finance for REDD+ activities; and requested SBSTA 38 to consider how non-market-based approaches, such as joint mitigation and adaptation approaches, could be developed, and initiate work on methodological issues related to non-carbon benefits resulting from REDD+ activities. UNU-IAS Traditional Knowledge Initiative with the Australian government and the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) organized an event on Australia's savanna fire management and sustainable livelihoods initiative. North Australia's Savanna Fire Management, which combines traditional indigenous burning practices with the latest scientific research and is recognized under Australia's Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), can provide guidelines for the establishment of fire projects in developing countries where savanna landscapes and traditional fire management practices are similar to those in tropical Australia. Using the knowledge and experience of Australia's indigenous land managers, the initiative will develop resources to document and communicate results and lessons learned and provide practical guidance on project design and implementation. Tebtebba and the Indigenous Peoples' Partnership on Climate Change and Forests organized a panel analyzing the current state of negotiations and indigenous peoples' demands on the Green Climate Fund. Panelists discussed the importance in protecting gains made by indigenous peoples in the next climate change agreement, including the recognition of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, recognition of traditional knowledge, and the requirements for full and effective participation in climate change programmes. On the Green Climate Fund, they called for full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, with separate representation from civil society. Visit the meeting's website … Read IISD Reporting Services' daily reports and a summary/analysis of the meeting … Read IISD RS' coverage of selected side events … Read the media release on Australia's savanna fire management and sustainable livelihoods initiative … Read a report on the panel on analysis of the current state of negotiations and indigenous peoples' demands on the Green Climate Fund by Natural Justice, including link to video … |
Meeting review: 7th session of the Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:17 AM PST UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, seventh session During this session, the Committee inscribed four elements on the list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, including: Ala-kiyiz and Shyrdak, art of Kyrgyz traditional felt carpets; Bigwala, gourd trumpet music and dance of the Busoga Kingdom in Uganda; Earthenware pottery-making skills in Botswana's Kgatleng District; and Noken multifunctional knotted or woven bag, handcraft of the people of Papua in Indonesia. It also inscribed 27 elements on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, including, among others, falconry, and cultural practices and expressions linked to the balafon of the Senufo communities of Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. It also selected two safeguarding programmes for the register of best practices; granted four international assistance requests totalling US$660,000; and examined sixteen new periodic reports from States Parties. Read the release on the closing of the session … |
This week in review … Córdoba seminar hears from FAO Director-General on value of underutilized crops, sustainable diets Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:15 AM PST Neglected crops need a rethink – can help world face the food security challenges of the future, says Graziano de Silva CORDOBA, SPAIN: "We must not lose track of our agricultural and culimary roots, nor the lore and wisdom of our ancestors," said FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva at the start of an international seminar on 21st century crops taking place from 10-13 December 2012, in Córdoba, Spain. "Currently there are about 870 million hungry people in the world, a world that produces enough food for everyone," he said. "Globalization has created an abundance of food in some parts of the world, but has failed to end the chronic shortages that exist elsewhere." He added that globalization "has created a certain homogeneity of products, accompanied by a loss of different culinary traditions and agricultural biodiversity." He stressed that neglected and underutilized species play a crucial role in the fight against hunger and are a key resource for agriculture and rural development. He also underlined the importance of sustainable diets. The seminar in Cordoba kicks off the celebration of 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa, and includes a special session on the Andean "super crop." Read the release … Visit the seminar's website … |
This week in review … Standoff remains on WTO IP talks Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:13 AM PST Chair: entrenched positions blocking intellectual property talks GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: WTO negotiations to create a multilateral register of geographical indications for wines and spirits are deadlocked over what the talks should cover, the chairperson, Amb. Yonov Frederick Agah of Nigeria, reported to the Trade Negotiations Committee on 7 December 2012. He said he will try to hold discussions on technical issues in early 2013. This would broaden the factual basis for the negotiations in a way that could allow members to delay the difficult "strategic" decisions about the talks' content and their links with other subjects. Ambassador Agah reported that the biggest stumbling block in the talks is differences of opinion over the mandate – including whether talks should only be about wines and spirits, as originally mandated, or whether other products could be added. The negotiating standoff also concerns whether these talks should be linked to two other topics, both handled separately in consultations under Director-General Lamy: a proposal to amend the rules so that the current higher level of protection given to geographical indications of wines and spirits are extended to other products ("GI extension"); and a call to amend the TRIPS Agreement so that patent applicants are required to disclose the country of origin of genetic resources and traditional knowledge used in the inventions. Read the release … Read an IP Watch article on the issue … |
This week in review … Article on South Africa's TK bill Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:10 AM PST From South Africa: Keeping Traditional Knowledge Traditional GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: In this article, Prof. Owen Dean provides a comment on South African government's proposed legislation to provide for protection for traditional knowledge in domestic law through amending the intellectual property laws bill. He notes that the desired type of protection cannot be achieved by amending this bill without doing serious damage to its basic tenets. That is because specialized protection for TK is not compatible with the fundamental principles of IP law as embodied in these statutes and the desired objective is incapable of being achieved for this reason. Read the article … |
Funding opportunity: Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:09 AM PST Call for applications The deadline to submit applications to attend the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council, the 16th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group, as well as the sessions of treaty bodies taking place in Geneva between April and June 2013 (50th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 50th session of the Committee against Torture, 18th session of the Committee on Migrant Workers and 9th session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) is 10 January 2013. Download the call [doc] … Further information on the fund … |
This week in review … European Parliament discusses biopiracy Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:07 AM PST Biopiracy: protecting genetic resources in developing countries STRASBOURG, FRANCE: Plants with medicinal properties are increasingly being used to create new medicines, but the indigenous people who first identified these features seldom get to share the profits. This is sometimes referred to as biopiracy and on 6 December, the development committee of the European Parliament adopted a report by French Green MEP Catherine Grèze setting out how it could be tackled. Ms Grèze proposes in her report a number of measures the EU could take to ensure that developing countries can benefit from their genetic resources and traditional knowledge. According to her, the EU should: adopt the Nagoya protocol on access and benefit-sharing, which aims to promote fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources; introduce a new legal framework for granting patents, which would include requirements to disclose where ingredients for a product come from, and to prove that the ingredients were acquired in a fair and legitimate way; and assist developing countries in establishing the institutions required to benefit from genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Read the release … Download the report [pdf] … |
Resource: Book on the Nagoya Protocol on ABS Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:05 AM PST The 2010 Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing in Perspective: Implications for International Law and Implementation Challenges The Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing is an innovative multilateral environmental agreement that has developed significantly the international biodiversity regime. In addition, it has considerable implications for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, for research and commercial development activities in various sectors, as well as for food security, health, trade, oceans and development cooperation. A prestigious group of international experts analyzes the implications of the Nagoya Protocol for different areas of international law, and its implementation challenges in various regions, or of a cross-cutting nature. The volume combines the perspectives of legal scholars and of stakeholders involved in the negotiations of the Protocol and the preparations towards its entry into force. Chapters addressing particularly traditional knowledge and indigenous peoples- related issues include: The international human rights law implications, by Annalisa Savaresi; An analysis of the relationship between the Nagoya Protocol and instruments related to genetic resources for food and agriculture and farmers' rights, by Claudio Chiarolla, Selim Louafi and Marie Schloen; Implementing the Nagoya Protocol in Africa: opportunities and challenges for African indigenous peoples and local communities, by Peter Munyi and Harry Jonas; An Asian developing country's view on the implementation challenges of the Nagoya Protocol, by Gurdial Singh Nijar; Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in JUSCANZ countries: the unlikely lot, by Geoff Burton; The implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges and opportunities, by Jorge Cabrera Medaglia; and the implications of the Nagoya Protocol for the ethical sourcing of biodiversity, by Maria Julia Oliva. Further information … |
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