Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- This week in review … WIPO IGC meets with focus on genetic resources
- Resource: WIPO Indigenous Portal
- This week in review … IP Watch article focuses on relevance of WIPO IGC negotiations for agriculture
- This week in review … Farmers in Koraput, India, improve resilience by maintaining their local seeds and traditional knowledge
- This week in review … RRI launches new reports with focus on land tenure issues
- This week in review … UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention to celebrate tenth anniversary
- This week in review … Study assesses use of plants in antimalarial therapies
- This week in review … OurWorld article highlights Sámi's resilience to climate change
This week in review … WIPO IGC meets with focus on genetic resources Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:27 AM PST Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore: Twenty-Third Session Currently meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the WIPO IGC aims to bridge gaps on a text that could become an international instrument on protection of genetic resources from misappropriation, working on the basis of a consolidated document relating to intellectual property and genetic resources. The meeting was preceded by an informal meeting organized by India in New Delhi from 28-29 January 2013, aiming to reach further clarity on key issues regarding the three texts under negotiation in the IGC, on genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. The indigenous panel, held on 4 February 2013, heard from UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya, who called for strengthened participation of indigenous peoples in the process and a focus on the protection of their traditional knowledge, while WIPO raised alarm on the almost thorough depletion of the Voluntary Fund allowing indigenous peoples' participation. Anaya provided a historical background outlining how conventional concepts of state sovereignty and property rights were detrimental to indigenous peoples, and how recent developments in decision-making at the international level have led to new understandings of these concepts, with special relevance for the rights of indigenous peoples to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Mandatory disclosure of origin in patent applications, and sanctions are among the main issues under discussion this week. The meeting is also expected to discuss a joint recommendation on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge submitted by Japan, Republic of Korea, Norway and the US. According to IP Watch, the meeting started with delegates restating their long-held positions, showing a clear divide on mandatory disclosure of origin in patent applications. The US in particular expressed concern about the expansion of the scope of disclosure when reference is made to derivatives and associated traditional knowledge. Delegates offered comments on the consolidated document, which is currently composed of policy objectives and nine articles, before allowing an expert group to work on improving the text. In addition, a new working document was submitted by Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea and the US on 4 February, requesting the WIPO Secretariat to update the WIPO technical study on patent disclosure requirements related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, with information regarding disclosure requirements and related access and benefit-sharing (ABS) systems that have been implemented by WIPO members. Visit the meeting's webpage, including links to webcasting and background documents … Read the IP Watch article of 1 February … Read the IP Watch article of 5 February … Read the IP Watch article on indigenous peoples rights of 5 February … Read James Anaya's statement … Read an infojustice.org article on the negotiations and indigenous participation of 4 February … |
Resource: WIPO Indigenous Portal Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:25 AM PST Indigenous Portal The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has developed an indigenous portal containing links to resources of interest to indigenous peoples and local communities. It includes information regarding participation in the WIPO IGC, including accreditation and the WIPO Voluntary Fund, the WIPO Indigenous Fellowship Program, and publications of interest, such as background briefs and the WIPO Traditional Knowledge Documentation Toolkit. Visit the portal … |
This week in review … IP Watch article focuses on relevance of WIPO IGC negotiations for agriculture Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:24 AM PST Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Getting the Rules Right for Agriculture: a Key Challenge for WIPO's IGC GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: In this article, the authors address the crucial relationship between the conservation, development and use of genetic resources and small-scale farmers. They argue that the strength and effectiveness of any treaty addressing intellectual property and genetic resources depends on the meaningful participation of small-scale farmers and those that can represent them, in the IGC deliberations. They argue that the IGC and the countries participating in the negotiations need to understand the development and food security implications of the draft texts relating to the rights and responsibilities over genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Questions, such as what impact do proposed texts have on the rights of farmers to use and exchange seed or on the choice and availability of desired technologies and know-how, need to be asked and explored. The needs and expertise of small-scale farmers are essential to ensure all the pertinent questions are identified and the answers fully explored. Read the article … |
This week in review … Farmers in Koraput, India, improve resilience by maintaining their local seeds and traditional knowledge Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:22 AM PST Traditional Farming Holds All the Aces KORAPUT, INDIA: Deforestation and climate change have resulted in erratic rainfall, shrinking water bodies and severe soil degradation in Ramaparia's hamlet of Tentulipar, located in the Eastern Ghat region of Odisha's Koraput province, leaving scores of farmers vulnerable to extreme hunger. But the Bhumia tribe is simply falling back on the wisdom of their 3,000-year-old traditional farming systems to ensure a year-round supply of healthy food. The tribe uses local seeds from the biodiversity-rich Eastern Ghats, a discontinuous mountain range that runs parallel to the Bay of Bengal along India's eastern coast at an average of 900 metres above mean sea level. The agricultural system here has adapted to the intensely hilly terrain, built resilience to the changing climate, and developed a natural pest-control mechanism. Tribal farmers grow hardy crops on the highlands, and more water-intensive crops on the midland and low-lying areas. Though the government of India has offered the tribe subsidised hybrid paddy, which yields about 3,700 to 4,800 kilogrammes per hectare – a much larger haul than the 2,400 to 3,300 kilogrammes farmers can expect from traditional seeds – the tribe has no intention of abandoning their indigenous crops. Last January, FAO accorded the status of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) to the traditional agricultural system in the Koraput region. This status grants farmers the support they need to continue to nurture and adapt their ancient practices to a changing climate and shrinking landholdings in order to ensure food security, without succumbing to modern agricultural practices. Read the article … |
This week in review … RRI launches new reports with focus on land tenure issues Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:20 AM PST New Reports: Global Land Grab Brings Significant Risk to Investors as Communities Respond to Economic Harm, Human Rights Abuses LONDON, UK: RRI launched two new reports at a panel event in London on 5 February 2013. The report Landowners or Laborers: What Choice Will Developing Countries Make? produced by the RRI, highlights the key choice facing developing countries in 2013: whether to embrace a more sustainable development path built on inclusiveness and respect for the rights of all their citizens, or instead to opt for a short-cut, handing out their people's lands and forests to industrial investors, hoping for faster-paced growth. The inequalities and disempowerment resulting from these extractive political and economic systems are replicating the "resource curse," in which nations become trapped in poverty and are riven by resentment and internal conflict, with growing risks of political turmoil. If countries choose open and inclusive democratic systems they can avoid this fate. But they will need to recognize local property rights and develop strong civil societies that keep citizens informed and hold leaders to account. The Financial Risks of Insecure Land Tenure: An Investment View, prepared by The Munden Project, investigates the real financial consequences of investing in land with disputed tenure rights. The findings demonstrate that companies and their investors can face substantial risks when they overlook or underestimate the land tenure contestation in rural areas. Further information … Download the press release [pdf] … Download the report Landowners or Laborers: What choice will developing countries make? … Download the report The Financial Risks of Insecure Land Tenure … |
This week in review … UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention to celebrate tenth anniversary Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:18 AM PST Tenth anniversary: waiting for your events! PARIS, FRANCE: The international community is celebrating this year the tenth anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The tenth anniversary offers a wide range of actors the opportunity to make an initial assessment and to explore the key challenges, constraints and possibilities related to the Convention's implementation. States Parties and various international and local stakeholders involved in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage are invited to share their initiatives to be compiled on a website. Visit the UNESCO ICH website … Visit the tenth anniversary website … |
This week in review … Study assesses use of plants in antimalarial therapies Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:16 AM PST Study assesses use of plants in antimalarial therapies COTONOU, BENIN: Traditional healers in Benin possess sophisticated knowledge regarding the treatment of malaria with medicinal plants, and strategies should be developed to exploit this and promote the plants' conservation, says a study conducted by researchers in Benin. Researchers at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, documented more than 80 plants, which are believed to be antimalarial and used by traditional healers in southern Benin's Allada plateau, to evaluate traditional knowledge and techniques for treating malaria. The families of Rubiaceae and Caesalpiniaceae were the most represented, with seven species each, although Dichapetalum madagascariense was the species most cited by traditional healers. The team found that the healers mainly use decoction, a method of extracting medicinal chemicals from plants by boiling, to prepare remedies. Read the article … |
This week in review … OurWorld article highlights Sámi's resilience to climate change Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:13 AM PST The Skolt Sámi's path to climate change resilience LAPLAND, FINLAND: This photo essay by UNU-TKI's Gleb Raygorodetsky offers a glimpse of the challenges that climate change presents for indigenous and local communities in northern Europe. An Arctic people of northern Finland whose livelihoods depend largely on their environment, the Skolt Sámi are searching for ways to remain resilient in the face of climate change. The Skolts are considered to be one of the most traditional Sámi reindeer herding and fishermen groups. They still practice the centuries-old customary system of clan-based governance, where the community council sobbar represents the highest body of decision-making, while for over 130,000 Sámi living throughout the northern reaches of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, the dominant governance system is the Sámi Parliament. Adapting to rapid change is nothing new to the Skolts, and they draw on this experience as they search for ways to adapt to their latest challenge — climate change. Read the article … |
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