Traditional knowledge and Globalization

Briefing organized by Tebbteba Foundation

Traditional knowledge as a cultural expression of indigenous identity was the theme of this briefing by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the Tebbteba Foundation, and this faces a daily struggle against globalisation. Colonization deprived indigenous peoples recognition for their ancestral techniques, such as the use of plants to cure common ills. Former colonial powers, she added, had 'stolen' this know-how. There is also the issue of intellectual property rights to safeguard the sacred relationship between indigenous peoples and nature.

Joji Carino addressed the different mechanisms in place to protect this knowledge; at the top is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and at the bottom, customary law. She highlighted the importance for indigenous peoples of the Convention on biological diversity drawn up at the Rio Summit in 1992, which discussing the access of biological resources by the populations. Enforcement of this international agreement is difficult which leads to both positive and negative protection; there also exists a discrepancy between formal and informal systems of enforcement.

Agreements made at the World Trade Organization (WTO) have lead to the patenting of microbiological processes and ensures the creation and upholding of indigenous knowledge. Ms. Tauli-Corpuz not only spoke of the UN but other affiliated organizations which served to protect these rights, like the FAO treaty to protect the use of plants for medicinal purposes.

However, this is a costly procedure which indigenous peoples are unable to meet; high legal fees restrict their access to international mechanisms of the protection of their knowledge.

By: James Gasteen et Clément Therme

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