Towards a Fairer and More Equitable Bushfoods Industry: access and benefit-sharing and certification frameworks

Abstract

ABSTRACT Australia’s bushfoods, botanicals and traditional medicines sector are a growing industry based on thousands of years of Indigenous Knowledge (IK). National and international growth in this industry does not provide satisfactory or equitable sharing of benefits, preventing opportunities and funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Without prior informed consent (PIC) and access and benefit sharing (ABS) arrangements, alongside specific point of difference certification and labelling schemes, current industry inequities will continue. International protocols such as the Nagoya Protocol require ABS arrangements, and we argue whether a certification trademark (CTM) scheme could also support ABS in Australia. ABS lays the groundwork to ethically share IK to mitigate harms and provide benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Establishing coherent CTM and labelling schemes will complement and could work towards addressing the gaps and limitations in Australian ABS laws. CTM and labelling systems, as well as strategies and statements used by established alliances and organisations, provide insight into what mechanisms current ABS laws allow for. We use these examples to recommend the next steps.