Protecting Traditional Knowledge from Corporate Piracy
India struggles to document its biodiversity.
by CHANDRIKA MAGO.
The Times of India.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005.
In the United States, it is the entertainment industries (RIAA, MPAA, etc.) that have latched on to the term “piracy” for what they describe as “theft” of their “intellectual property.” But in third world countries, piracy is a much more serious problem than teenagers copying pop-songs. In the 1990s, the U.S. granted a patent on
turmeric’s use in healing wounds, something
which India had taken for granted. Since then India has been leading the way in trying to identify and protect its tradtional knowledge through programs such as the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).
This article describes efforts to document India’s biodiversity by panchayats (institutions of local self-government).
In certain states, panchayats are now preparing bioresource registers. Activist Ashish Kothari says there are two broad models. One, where scientists, NGOs and others facilitate a community register in a uniformly applicable format that is also “computerisable”. This would enable larger databases to be constructed, village up. The second is where the community itself prepares the register, in its own language and format, primarily for inter-community exchange.
See also: Biopiracy
The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge by Vandana Shiva. South End Press, 1997. Available at the library.