BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS - Portal do Professor

PART I / CHAPTER 3
In pursuance of the above arguments, the African Group
proposed community protocols as a community-based means
to ensure that ABS agreements relating to TK affirm the biocultural
ways of life of ILCs that Article 8(j) seeks to protect.
They explained:
A community protocol is an outlining of ecological values on
which FPIC, MAT and benefit-sharing would be based.
It enunciates a community’s core values and while it remains
a flexible instrument, it provides community members and
outside interests a level of certainty about the principles upon
which any ABS agreement will be negotiated.
Community protocols are perhaps the best chance for ILCs
to ensure that their ways of life and values are respected
and promoted. Merely relying on the benefits of ABS
agreements without affirming their ecological values would
reduce ILCs to sellers of TK who warm themselves on the
embers of a lifestyle that is fast dying out. 5
As we turn to WGABS 8, to be held in Montreal in November
2009, the WG will be specifically discussing the provision on TK.
The African Group has revised its submission to better order
its text under the bricks and bullets. It has included reference
5 . Supra n.17.
to community protocols under a Main Component D, including
in operational text under the following bricks and bullets:
• Measures to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits
arising out of the utilization of TK with TK holders, in
accordance with Article 8(j) of the CBD (brick D/1/1);
• Measures to address the use of TK in the context of benefitsharing
arrangements (brick D/1/3);
• Community-level distribution of benefits arising out of
TK (bullet D/2/4);
• Access with approval of TK holders (brick D/1/7);
• No engineered or coerced access to TK (brick D/2/8);
• FPIC of and MAT with holders of TK, including indigenous
and local communities, when TK is accessed (bullet D/2/1);
• Measures to ensure that access to TK takes place in
accordance with community-level procedures (brick D/1/2); and
• Identification of best practices to ensure respect for TK in
ABS-related research (brick D/1/4)
ABS 8 will define the shape of the IRABS as it relates to
communities’ TK, and the inclusion of community protocols
in the text will determine the level of protection communities
can exercise over their TK.
3. Group of Technical and Legal Experts on TK
There is a growing understanding internationally that the biocultural
relationships between TK, communities and
ecosystems have to be taken seriously to ensure conservation
and sustainable use of biological diversity. The recent June
2009 report of the Meeting of the Group of Technical and
Legal Experts on TK associated with GR in the context of
the IRABS states:
…8. In situations where traditional knowledge is associated
to genetic resources… it was highlighted by many experts that
traditional knowledge and genetic resources are inseparable.
9. Experts further clarified that there are two types of traditional
knowledge, one that is highly specific and [one] that… is of a
more general nature, related to the encompassing ecosystem
and is the result of co-evolution.
10. In discussing the relationship between traditional
knowledge and genetic resources, the history of co-evolution
COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS IN THE NEGOTIATIONS OF
THE INTERNATIONAL REGIME ON ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING
(of biological and cultural systems) reinforces the inseparability
of traditional knowledge and genetic resources.
Furthermore, co-evolution suggests that there is traditional
knowledge [that]… is highly specific and traditional
knowledge [that]… is of a more general nature as the result
of co-evolved, bio-cultural systems. Research shows that
human ecosystem management and traditional knowledge
promotes biological diversity and thus genetic diversity.
…18. It was also noted that Article 8(j) is a stand-alone
provision that was not subservient to Article 15 but in fact they
are mutually supportive and the development of the
International Regime should support Article 8(j) in respecting,
protecting and promoting traditional knowledge.
It was noted that Article 15 speaks to the sovereignty of States
over their genetic resources whereas Article 8(j) recognizes
holders of traditional knowledge.
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