Category: Indigenous knowledge systems

All too often it seems as if the “debate” on access to genetic resources (and the sharing of the benefits derived from access and use ¹ mostly consists of people talking past each other. Today we have, from the animal genetic resources conference at Interlaken, a statement to the effect that the talking is coming at the expense of urgent action on conservation. Meanwhile, we have more talking from an international workshop in Beijing on genetic resources and indigenous knowledge, ² where Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law professor at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, said that:

Developing countries are losing out because their laws do not specify which resources should be paid for and how… This is due to the lack of a legal definition of what constitutes payable genetic resources, and clarity on who owns these resources: national governments or local communities of origin.