Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 1 • 21st January 2005
Indigenous Communities Reach Landmark Potato Agreement
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Six indigenous communities from Peru reached a groundbreaking agreement with the Lima-based International Potato Center (IPC) that recognises the communities’ rights over the native potato strains and associated traditional knowledge. This “is a first legal sign of the restoration of rights that indigenous people once had,” said Alejandro Argumedo from the Association for Nature and Sustainable Development (ANDES) which helped to broker the deal. He pointed to the importance of potatoes as a food source and a cultural symbol in Peru which has the highest diversity for potato genetic resources in the world. The agreement requires signatories to ensure that the genetic resources and knowledge should remain in the custody of the communities and “do not become subject to intellectual property rights in any form”. “These indigenous people are against patents,” Argumedo stressed, adding that patents “represent a model of property that does not fit into their worldview” which is based on exchanging and sharing information openly. The IPC is one of 16 Future Harvest Centres around the world that aim to work towards increasing food security, reducing poverty, and protecting the environment in the developing countries.
“Potato Capital of the world offers up new recipe,” IPS, 18 January 2005.
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