Bandung Declaration: Developing countries seek fair deal on rights
The Nation [Thailand]

BANDUNG, INDONESIA: 50 developing countries in Asia and Africa called on developed countries to accept a greater measure of international protection for traditional cultural expression (TCE), traditional knowledge (TK) and genetic resources (GRs). The move is aimed at protecting the intellectual property (IP) of developing countries from unfair use by developed countries. The demand came in the Bandung Declaration, made during a meeting of the Asia-Africa Forum on TCE, TK and GRs in Bandung, Indonesia. It seeks to stop the unfair use by developed nations of the IP resources of developing countries and prevent “all forms of misuse, distortion and misappropriation”. More…

Indigenous peoples share knowledge in the Pacific
Fiji Times

SUVA, FIJI: Addressing environmental conservation in the Indo-Pacific region is the aim of a three-day First Peoples Worldwide (FPW) and Indigenous Stewards Initiatives (ISI) meeting at the USP Marine Studies Centre, in Suva, Fiji. The meeting is discussing indigenous stewardship in the Pacific region, traditional knowledge and stewardship practices, economics of restoration, land and marine ecosystem and traditional authority. More…

Keeping the Sacred Secret in Kyrgyzstan
NewEurasia.net

BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN: Worshipping at sacred sites is a well-known cultural behavior all over the world and in Kyrgyzstan, worshipping at sacred sites is a wide spread phenomenon as well. In the Kyrgyz language sacred sites are called mazars. this article presents ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of making a map of the mazars at Nyldy ata, and worshipping and other traditional behaviours at mazars. More…

PNG: Protecting Traditional Knowledge
The National [PNG]

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The debate on the protection and ensuring access to traditional knowledge continues in different forms around the world. Work in the Pacific on a legal instrument for the protection of traditional Knowledge, since 1999, has resulted in the ‘Pacific Model Law for the Protection of Traditional Knowledge’, which was endorsed by the Pacific Ministers of Culture in 2004. PNG is now going through the process of considering it for possible adoption. With the assistance of K33,000-00 from the World bank, the Toimtop Youth (Toimtop: a little village in the East Pomio District of East New Britain) were able to build the Toimtop Bio-Cultural Resource Center. While the Center is multi-purpose, one of its main functions was to document the cultural resources of Mengen and Sulka tribes, and for storage in perpetuity. More…