Traditional
Knowledge Bulletin
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- 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
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:09 AM
PDT
WIPO
Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources,
Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, 25th session
15-24 July 2013 (Geneva, Switzerland)
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:07 AM
PDT
Call for
candidates supported participation in upcoming CBD meetings
CBD Alliance, 25 July 2013
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:05 AM
PDT
Indigenous
Cultures Team Up to Apply Ancient Wisdom to Today’s World
Andrew Howley, National Geographic Explorers Journal, 1 August 2013
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:04 AM
PDT
First Nation
knowledge aids in quest for anti-cancer compounds
Lab Canada news, 1 August 2013
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:02 AM
PDT
Scientists
seek out forest traditions in climate change fight
CIFOR blog post, 22 July 2013
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 03:00 AM
PDT
IUCN REDD+
Project in Indonesia Supports Customary Land Mapping
IUCN release, 17 July 2013
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 …
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Posted: 07 Aug 2013 02:58 AM
PDT
Universities
to document fishermen’s knowledge
The Times of India, 30 July 2013
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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