Indigenous Peoples' Knowledge in Modern Patent Trap
19/02/2004 - (ET)
Kuala Lumpur - Indigenous people are trapped in a "Catch-22" situation over the protection of their
traditional knowledge about medicinal and other uses of plants as well as other recipes from Mother
Nature. Based on research by the Institute of Advanced
Studies of the UN-University http://www.ias.unu.edu
the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples is more than ever endangered by international Patent
Acts. A given loophole in the international law for the protection of intellectual rights could lead to
the fact that knowledge, which was verbally and discretely passed on for thousands of years, now
would become freely and openly accessible to all.
The report urges changes to international law to eliminate what it calls "a modern
absurdity" which forces the holders of ancient secrets to
disclose them publicly if they want to protect them.
To decide whether a new product seeking patent protection is novel or based upon traditional
knowledge, officials require free access to indigenous secrets, according to the report by
the Tokyo-based UNU Institute of Advanced Studies.
While several countries have inventoried traditional knowledge to prevent its commercial
theft, some cultures keep such information tightly guarded,
passing it from one generation to the next through codes of conduct and customary law.
The existing rules are an affront to the culture and customs of many indigenous peoples and can lead to
injustices, the report says.
It cites as an example a legal challenge to a patent over the plant Ayahuasca, which grows in the tropical
rain forest of Amazonia and is used for ritual and cultural ceremonies.
US patent regulators refused to accept the oral evidence of an Amazon shaman about his people's
traditional knowledge of the plant's healing properties. Schamans and other healers in the Amazon
have been and are using Ayahuasca for centuries as cures.
"The challenge for the world community is to devise a process to prevent the piracy of traditional knowledge
without jeopardising the cultural integrity and ways of indigenous peoples," says the report's
author, Brendan Tobin.
He recommends allowing oral evidence of traditional knowledge, establishing means for such evidence to
be given confidentially and providing for restricted access to confidential databases. The model used
by the Inuit could apply in the opinion of the UN also to other states. There high government officials can
have access to secret documents holding traditional
knowledge, if it should come to a patent controversy.
The report was released on the sidelines of a major UN conference on the Convention on Biodiversity, which
seeks to protect the world's animal and plant life from the ravages of human development.
In a related report it is clearly said too that managers of parks and other protected areas require
training to guard against the threat of biopiracy and to help ensure that the exploitation of genetic
riches in their custody creates local benefits.
ECOTERRA Intl.
Conc. Taditional knowledge and Intellectal Property Rights see also:
http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/index.html
