In Touch l General resources 203
the potato and other native Andean crops
characteristic of Andean food systems.
The approach also depends on close
collaboration with formal and informal
Quechua technicians in researching,
training and developing adaptive
management models for indigenous
biocultural heritage – a ‘project’ rather
than ‘service’ approach that works with
local politics.
n Online: http://pubs.iied.org/14567IIED.html
Banishing the
biopirates: a new
approach to
protecting traditional
knowledge
l Krystyna Swiderska
Gatekeeper 129, IIED,
2006
The livelihoods of
indigenous peoples and the conservation
of biodiversity worldwide depend on
conserving and protecting traditional
knowledge of the use and functioning of
biological and natural resources. This
traditional knowledge (TK) has helped
develop the millions of farmers’ food crop
varieties in use today, as well as a wealth of
traditional medicines and techniques for
sustainable agriculture and resource use.
Yet this knowledge is rapidly
disappearing. It is under increasing threat
from both intellectual property regimes
and economic globalisation processes
which undermine traditional rural
livelihoods. This loss is occurring despite
the fact that the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) requires member
countries to respect, preserve and
maintain traditional knowledge,
innovations and practices and encourage
the fair and equitable sharing of benefits
from their use. International and national
policies have so far proved inadequate to
protect traditional knowledge. The
dominant paradigms of access and
benefit-sharing and intellectual property
rights fail to adequately protect TK
because they reflect western norms and
laws, and focus narrowly on protecting
intellectual rights. This paper describes
how indigenous and farmers’
organisations are calling for more holistic
approaches to protecting their rights to
TK, bio-genetic resources, territories,
culture and customary laws. These
components of indigenous knowledge
systems and heritage cannot be separated.
A new framework for protecting TK,
known as collective biocultural heritage,
addresses biodiversity and culture
together, rather than separating them;
recognises collective as opposed to
individual rights; and places them in the
framework of ‘heritage’ as opposed to
‘property’.
n Online: http://pubs.iied.org/14537IIED.html
Biocultural
community
protocols enforce
biodiversity
benefits: a
selection of cases
and experiences
l Endogenous
Development Magazine No. 6.
COMPAS, 2010
Community protocols need an endogenous
development process – and endogenous
development becomes stronger when legal
frameworks are included. This issue of
COMPAS Magazine is devoted to
processes and legal frameworks relating to
biocultural community protocols and
includes information, resources and case
studies from communities from Canada,
Ghana, Guatemala and India.
n Online: www.compasnet.org/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2010/11/EDM-6.pdf
Global biodiversity outlook 3
This is the flagship publication of the
Convention on Biological Diversity.
Drawing on a range of information
sources, including national reports,
biodiversity indicators information,