Traditional agricultural knowledge and farmers' rights.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the call for the recognition of farmers' rights together with agitation for the protection of the traditional knowledge which often informs access to the useful genetic resources. The concept of Farmers' Rights was developed as 'a counterbalance to intellectual property rights'. This was a moral commitment by the industrialized countries to reward 'the past present and future contributions of farmers in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources particularly those in centres of origin/diversity'. Farmers' Rights were intended to promote a more equitable relation between the providers and users of germplasm by creating a basis for farmers to share in the benefits derived from the germplasm they had developed and conserved over time. To date, the only measure that has been implemented to provide for Farmers' Rights is the International Fund for Plant Genetic Resources, which was envisaged in the Undertaking which preceded the Treaty. This Fund was to operate as a means of capacity building in the field of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries rather than as a reward to individual farmers or farming communities for their contribution to the development or improvement of plant varieties. Indigenous communities consider that their TK is holistically linked with their custodianship of the genetic resources on their land and, indeed, their rights of self-determination. One of the results of the International Decade of the World Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004) was the promulgation, by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007 of a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Article 31 of the Declaration provides that: (1) Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions; and (2) In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.