Targeting the Millenium Development Goals on basic health :
Promotion and protection of indigenous medicine and pharmacology in a liberalized world

The central discussion of this meeting, organized by Citizens of the World, was the preservation of knowledge about traditional indigenous medicine. The three principal subjects were 1) the problem of patenting this knowledge, 2) access to medication and the link between traditional medicine and; 3) scientific knowledge.

Firstly, Mr. Biro (economist and human rights activist from the Ivory Coast) began a discussion advocating in the favour of an equal sharing of practical knowledge. He heavily condemned the trans-national enterprises acting in a frenetic concurrence for the profit of research. In this system the gap between the rich and the poor does not stop growing and the protection of intellectual property rights of indigenous people is being threatened. To avoid "collective suicide" from being irrevocable, Mr. Biro urgently demanded that a "political morale" should replace the actual practices occurring now. All states should be engaged in maintaining a durable utilisation of traditional elements constituting the biodiversity. He concluded by talking about the need to protect the culture of indigenous people to let them develop their capacities. He emphasized the need to put their knowledge at the service of humanity in the area of traditional medicine.

Mr. Raul Gagliardi (Italian scientist) preferred talking about the utilization of the knowledge rather than the ownership of the knowledge, as Mr. Biro did. He proposed the integration of the traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge, and insisted on the link between local knowledge and local utilization (understanding, developing and protecting these resources).

From his side, Mr. Pierrre Beaudoin (of The Rhone-Alps Protection of Nature Federation) oriented the debates about the legitimacy of patent registration According to Mr. Beaudoin, it is illegal to patent something that exists in nature (such as medical plants) given that the essence of the patent is placed on new innovations. On this topic, Mr. Tavengua Runycrva (Zimbabwe) said that in his country the indigenous do not know about the law of protection in the area of medical herbs. To finish up this testimony, Dr. Genevieve Jourdan (the Geneva representative for Citizens of the World) gave an example of huge laboratories that (in Zimbabwe and other places in the world) pay large amounts of money to governments to do the so-called inventory of medicinal herbs planted on rented territories several years. In reality, they transform these plants into pharmaceutical products and separate indigenous people from the process of commercialization. Since no existing legislation opposes this process, indigenous people cannot oppose the situation. Dr. Jourdan states that starting from this year, the traditional medicine is one of the WHO issues.

Mr. Gagliardi spoke about the importance of differentiating an object from its related knowledge. He gives an example about a plant given as a remedy to a patient for a sickness: To whom does this knowledge belong? To the person who grows the plant, the scientist who analyzed and identified the active ingredient or the doctor who diagnosed the sickness and prescribed the plant? In reality, all of them could be considered as stakeholders of this knowledge. It is owned by all of humanity.

Mr. Floribert Beloko Takanaki (of CEFAIL-ONGD in R.D.C.), originally from Sankuru (a poor nation devastated by several wars that took place in the country) emphasized the urgency for these populations to survive in the state in which the live and to not debate the ownership of the knowledge. At this moment, Mr. Gagliardi intervened to emphasize that the research of solutions passes by scientific intervention. In countries that have very few resources (such as R.D.C.), the national resources in the subject of traditional medicine should be optimized in a scientific way and could also be locally commercialized by little enterprises. This would partially remediate the problem of accessing medicine.

In conclusion, the debates about this subject are far from being closed given the divergence of interest between the process of globalization taking place and indigenous needs to live and survive.

By : Melvina Araman and Didier Dutoit
Translated by : Kristin Bailey - CONGO Communications Intern.

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