Traditional knowledge (TK), increasingly recognized as a valuable asset for developed and developing countries alike, may be lost forever unless urgent remedial action is taken, warns a new UNCTAD publication, launched today.
Actions must be taken at national and international levels to protect and nurture those assets because up to 80% of the world´s population depends on products and services derived from traditional knowledge, innovations and practices to meet their everyday food and health needs. TK is indispensable for survival of the poorest segments of societies, particularly women, indigenous people and rural inhabitants, especially in the least developed countries. Over 90% of food in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is produced using customary farming practices. Traditional knowledge assets are also essential for the management of ecosystems by local communities.
The book, Protecting and Promoting Traditional Knowledge: Systems, National Experiences and International Dimensions, is a collection of 46 expert papers from across the world. Its authors - from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and intergovernmental organizations and civil society groups - present national experiences with protecting and commercializing TK, indigenous and community rights, touching on such issues as access to genetic resources and bioprospecting. The book focuses on three key issues:
- What is the role of traditional knowledge, particularly in health and agriculture in developing countries?
- Why and how should traditional knowledge be protected?
- How can traditional knowledge best be harnessed for development and trade?
It also warns that the biodiversity crisis is being accompanied by a cultural diversity crisis, which could lead to the disappearance of up to 90% of the world´s languages and of the traditional knowledge and cultures expressed by them in the next 100 years. One of the main challenges emphasized by the authors is to ensure that the benefits of cumulative innovation derived from traditional knowledge accrue to its holders, while enhancing their socio-economic development. TK is frequently used and appropriated without the prior informed consent of the holders.
Traditional knowledge benefits national economies and has the potential to benefit them still further. Such TK-based products as handicrafts, medicinal plants, traditional agricultural products, and non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are traded in both domestic and international markets and already provide substantial benefits for exporter countries. For example, some 150 NWFPs, including rattan, cork, essential oils, forest nuts and gum arabic, are traded internationally in significant quantities. TK is also used as an input into such modern industries as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, food additives, industrial enzymes, biopesticides and personal care. But most of the value added in such cases is captured by firms based in developed countries, whose advanced scientific and technological capabilities make this possible.
Analysis of the development dimensions and implications of the establishment and enforcement of intellectual property rights, as well as protection of traditional knowledge, is one of the areas mandated by UNCTAD XI (São Paulo, June 2004) for continued UNCTAD work.
For background on national sui generis systems to preserve, protect and promote TK, see the results of a joint UNCTAD-Commonwealth Secretariat Workshop in February 2004 in Geneva. For background on UNCTAD XI, see http://www.unctadxi.org/.
