Category: Indigenous knowledge systems

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Namibia examines Access and Benefit Sharing

A meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, is bringing together private sector and government in an effort to develop legislation and practices governing biotrade and bioprospecting, according to an article in allAfrica.com. Namibia is currently drafting a bill on Access to Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge.

According to the report, the private sector is unwilling to stand up and announce a clear approach to ABS.

“They are averse to any negative publicity and believe that prior to any such event it is essential for them to have a clear position and approach to benefit sharing, and for many this is still work in progress,” said Jonathan Laundrey, New Business Manager of Phyto Trade Africa.

The focus on medicinal products, where “benefits” can indeed be very large, is not surprising as Namibia is the primary source of Devil’s Claw, Harpagophytum procumbens, a therapy for inflammation — notably arthritis — and other ailments. The value of exports is estimated at N$10 million a year. That’s “only” US $140,000, but in a country where more than a third of the people live on less than a dollar a day, a bigger share would probably help. An old press release from WHO suggests that organic, sustainable Devil’s Claw is the way forward, but enforcing that requires more than a bill on ABS.

Later … I’ve done a little more digging, and discovered a study published at the end of 2006 that has this to say on the value of Devil’s Claw:

In answer to the question of whether Devil’s Claw is fairly traded analysis of the value chain indicated that harvesters receive only 1.1% of the final consumer price of the active ingredient of Devil’s Claw. Of the final shelf­value, only 7% is retained within the range states, a disappointingly low figure.

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Documenting Amazonian crop diversity

CODESU is the Consortium for Sustainable Development in Ucayali – an Amazonian department of Peru, with Pucallpa as its administrative centre. The consortium partners really recognize the importance of agricultural biodiversity in their development efforts – perhaps an unusual situation. The latest evidence of this committment is the germplasm catalog that has just gone online. It has information on cassava, peppers, beans and maize. There are other interesting resources on the website, including publications, though mainly in Spanish. You can read more about the efforts of CODESU in the management of crop diversity in traditional agroecosystems, and place them in a wider context, in a recent Bioversity International publication of that title.

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Ecotourism investigated

From id21, a report that questions some of the assumptions about ecotourism, and asks whether it really is an innovative conservation and development strategy or merely a celebration, by those who can afford it, of poverty?

Ecotourism projects tell communities they can generate revenue by protecting biodiversity, but also that they should never hope to achieve much beyond this role. This ties the development prospects of rural communities to local, natural limits in a way that is completely alien to economic development in richer societies.

Given that the author, Jim Butcher, takes a pretty dim view of the whole scene, I suppose I should be glad that he does not seem to recognize agricultural ecotourism at all. But there are strong suggestions that this can help communities not only to gain an income but also to preserve their traditional knowledge at the same time as making the modern development steps needed to connect to the wider world. (There is a method for commenting on the id21 site, but it seems awfully cumbersome, and I can’t actually see whether anyone has commented on Butcher’s piece.)