Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 6 • Number 9 • 19th May 2006
Two African Laws Proposed for TK, Trade in Genetic Resources
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To address civil society concerns regarding sustainable use of biodiversity, trade and protection of intellectual property rights, Malawi and Kenya have recently begun framing laws on access and benefit sharing and protection of traditional knowledge (TK). In Malawi, civil society actors on 22 April gathered to examine the governments’ draft bill on intellectual property rights, access and benefit sharing and farmers’ and plant breeders’ rights which is set to be presented soon to the national Parliament. The bill gives communities rights as the lawful users and custodians of the biological diversity on the land that they own, as well as rights over the knowledge and innovations related to the use of genetic resources on their land. It establishes the right to access, use, exchange or share their biological resources in sustaining their livelihoods, and says that it is illegal for genetic resources or related traditional knowledge to be sold, assigned, transferred or dealt with in any way which adversely affects the resource rights of the local community. However, at the meeting a Malawian traditional healer said that measures designed to reduce the misappropriation of genetic resources by foreigners, such as a licence requirement for taking herbs out of the country, could disturb his operations.
Similarly, Kenyan Attorney-General Amos Wako at the end of April created a Task Force on the Development of Laws for the Protection of Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Folklore to identify existing traditional knowledge and folklore and recommend laws to protect them. Laws could include mechanisms to protect genetic resources, ways to compensate custodians of folklore and access benefit sharing tools for traditional medicine. The question of how best to protect TK and genetic resources is being negotiated in a number of different international fora, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Convention on Biological Diversity and the WTO Council on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
ICTSD Reporting; “Access and Benefit Sharing Bill drafted,” MALAWI DAILY TIMES, 26 April 2006; “Kenya: Country Seeks to Protect Local Knowledge,” EAST AFRICAN STANDARD, 28 April 2006.
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Please do not overlook the importance of each farmer being able to use the seeds they buy or grow as they see fit. Seeds purchased and those produced from them should belong exclusively to the purchaser, not to a ‘patent holder.’ The well being of the hard working farm family, many living at or below the poverty line, must take precedence over the ‘intellectual property’ rights of seed producing corporations.