Collective action for protecting biodiversity traditional knowledge
[#1112]
Experiences and lessons learned can be drawn from the development and implementation of legal schemes that aim to protect indigenous peoples’ collective knowledge associated with biological resources. For example, the Peruvian “Law introducing a protection regime for indigenous peoples’ collective knowledge associated with biological resources”, called Law 27811, establishes a regime that includes license agreements on the one hand and public, confidential and local registers of knowledge, on the other. Peru was the first country with a large indigenous population to create such a regime. Among the objectives of Law 27811 are: promoting the respect and protection of collective knowledge associated with biological resources, guaranteeing that their use is made with the prior informed consent of indigenous peoples, and promoting just and equitable benefits sharing derived from the use of collective knowledge associated with biological resources. In Law 27811, under article 15, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) is responsible for both the National Public Register and the National Confidential Register of Collective Knowledge of Indigenous People, including the associated responsibilities for diffusing the content of the law and the characteristics of these registers among collective knowledge holders. It would be interesting to know more about the extent to which this scheme and other similar schemes are currently operating in practice.
Ley 27811, Ley que establece el régimen de protección de los conocimientos colectivos de los pueblosindígenas vinculados a los recursos naturales /Law 27811, Law introducing a protection regime for indigenous peoples’ collective knowledge associated with biological resources (2002),
https://www.cbd.int/abs/measures/measure.shtml?id=7920 Accessed 22nd May 2014.
Alexander, M., Chamundeeswari, K., Kambu, A., Ruiz, M., and Tobin, B., 2004, The role of registers and databases in the protection of traditional knowledge: A comparative analysis, United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, Yokohama, Japan
http://archive.ias.unu.edu/binaries/UNUIAS_TKRegistersReport.pdf Accessed 22nd May 2014.
Ituarte-Lima, C and Subramanian, S (2013) ‘Retreading negotiations on equity in environmental governance: case studies contrasting the evolution of ABS and REDD+’ in Maes, F., Cliquet, A., du Plessis, W., McLeod-Kilmurray, H. (eds), Climate Change and Biodiversity: Linkages at International, National and Local Levels, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Series, Edward Elgar Publishing, Surrey and Northampton
