Protecting traditional knowledge from the grassroots up
Krystyna Swiderska, IIED, 29 June 2009
Published on the eve of the WIPO IGC session, this briefing, based on participatory research with indigenous and local communities, concludes that existing intellectual property standards are not appropriate for TK protection because these standards have been developed to suit commercial interests. IIED and partner organisations in India, China, Panama, Peru and Kenya looked at what it would mean to protect traditional knowledge and associated genetic resources according to customary laws and practices and how to recognise this approach in law and policy, and identified key policy components, including: recognition of collective rights and decision-making; means of sharing benefits equitably among communities; recognition of customary rights over genetic resources such as crop varieties that communities have developed; enabling reciprocal access to genetic resources between users and communities; and managing external access to traditional knowledge with community protocols. It was also stressed that ancestral rights to control knowledge cannot be extinguished, even if knowledge has been shared with others, because of its vital role in survival and identity. Read IIED’s press release … Download the briefing [pdf] …
