Environment minister, Dr Kenneth Darroux, has said that there is a need to put measures in place to ensure the protection of traditional knowledge associated with indigenous biological resources.
Speaking at the launching of a regional training workshop on drafting legislation for the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing on Wednesday, Darroux explained that resources whether from plants, animals or micro organisms, are used by a wide range of people operating in different sectors for a wide range of purposes.
The Nagoya Protocol aims to ensure that if a person, agency or organization wishes to access genetic resources such as plant and animal material in a foreign country, they must first inform the country about their intentions and get consent to access the material. There will also be provisions for the person or institution to show the benefits of their research with the source country.
Caricom Secretariat representative officer at the workshop, Theresa Yard, explained further that the protocol requires all parties to recognize and respect the knowledge, customs and practices of indigenous and traditional communities.
“The Nagoya Protocol is incumbent to help ensure that countries and communities in the Caribbean and around the world receive a fair and equitable share of the benefits that may arise from the use of their genetic resources,” she stated. “I must emphasise that if Caribbean countries want to have their voices heard in the crucial negotiations after the protocol comes into force, becoming party to the protocol is an urgent and essential next step.”
Joelle Harris Solicitor General of the Ministry of Tourism and Legal Affairs, added that the workshop is important to Dominica since large companies are using flora for their research and are reluctant to share the benefits of their research.
“The protocol also recognizes the rights of the indigenous people and the importance of protecting their traditional knowledge as well as that of the communities,” she said. “It allows us to ensure that any use of this knowledge and resources will benefit our indigenous people and local communities as much as it benefits those who come in from outside these communities to gain access to genetic resources which often involve traditional knowledge for medicinal and other purposes which can potentially lead to great monetary gain.”
Harris said with programs such as these, small islands can be protected from exploitation and ensures the sustainable use of its genetic resources.
The program is being funded by the European Union Commission and the United Nations Environment Program.
Can anybody purchase it from a bookstore?
Man find something to do in your constituency. You are the worst the constituency has ever seen. BUT AGAIN THAT IS GOOD FOR THEM!
Good move but why the repeat of efforts. Some years aback and as recent as 3-4 years aback the DHBA initiated this ABS exercise with the lead consultant coming all the way from Costa Rica. We should be aware that Costa Rica has one of the best pieces of legislation with regards to ABS. I believe that his name was Jorge Cabrera and he did a wonderful job in getting a DRAFT piece of legislation for ABS in Dominica. Can someone from DHBA confirm? So how do we use that readily available info and continue with the process as apposed to starting from zero!!!
no man
Nice rhetoric!time to start puting words into action!THE playing field in t savanne,unemployment in t savanne…lands for farming,the deplorable state of the roads from geneva to t savanne…you just there going on like a celebrity and getting fat and feels all is well with your constituency!!!
“There will also be provisions for the person or institution to SHOW the benefits of their research with the source country.” I hope that word was meant to be SHARE, otherwise what good is it just to show us the benefits they obtained from our indigenous research on our product be it material or intellectual?
Good move. Too often, companies from developed countries, with unlimited research capabilities, exploit resources of developing countries and claim rights to these resources. This strategy is another form of colonialism when the perpetrators are nations like China.
Woy! i love this verse: “Small Islands can be protected from exploitation and ensure the sustainable use of its genetic resources.” Dominica has been and is being “EXPLOITED” by these Mountain Top Removers. The people who tear down mountains in order to make building and construction materials like sand and stone/aggegate, are the ones the “Environment Minister” should tackle first. Complete landscapes are being destroyed right before our eyes and no one is taking it to heart.
great idea!!!
I take this opportunity to commend the Minister of the Environment and the Solicitor General for recognizing the economic potential that exits through the protection of traditional,knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. In Barbados in November of 2006 at a conference of under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)I had first pointed out the absurdity of moving to protect traditional knowledge by law when a lot of our traditional knowledge was outlawed by the OBEAH Act. As we know this piece of very bad law (as law) was intended to keep black people in mental bondage by forcing them to abandon any other spiritual frame of reference than the one constructed for them by the slave masters. The law is also quite possibly unconstitutional with respect to the freedom of religion which is guaranteed by the constitution.
At a recent seminar here in Dominica on the protection of Traditional knowledge and traditional Cultural Expressions I was pleased to see that the WIPO consultant had come around to my point of view that OBEAH is a valuable tool and and could be considered as alternative psychiatry which has therapeutic value. Similarly the use of plants and other biological material used in OBEAH could have beneficial effects on the SOMA(body),but we can never properly evaluate these potentially beneficial effects while the practice of OBEAH is outlawed.
I am therefore calling on the Minister and the Solicitor General to move with all haste to clear the legal deck, so to speak, so that new and effective laws can be implemented to protect our traditional knowledge and to allow all of it to emerge from the shadows in which it is now cloaked.
Minister of flip flop!!!
Thanks for that Mark. It is very true.
Professor Jerry Handler of the US did a study of the OBEAH ACTS of Dominica from slavery times down to the present and showed that it was a systematic de-Africanisation of the population that was intended.
At the same time there was the “Scramble for Souls” after emancipation as all the established churches rushed to capture members and use religion to control them. Meanwhile the legislature was passing all sorts of laws like “vagrancy acts” and preventing people from getting land so they had to work on estates, and laws to control sex etc. So between the church and states they had the people in blissful ignorance and dependency.
Now in the 21st century the Fundamentalists have taken over with the same tactic. The politicians are now frightened of the power of the fundamentalists so they bow and scrape to the pastors because they know that the pastors have control over the minds of potential voters!
That’s why the politicians do ridiculous things like renaming mountains because superstitious manipulative pastors say so. Even Traditional Knowledge is seen by some as non-Western nonsense, and the wider malaise in our society is linked to this attitude. Thanks for opening up the debate.
Like, good input Kaliban.
What is this man doing for his constituency ?
NOT A FAT. a pure waste of time!
Good talk but action needs to be taken NOW. And while we are at it let me just say that it was because of similar concerns that i have argued that foreigners visiting our WNT (National Trail) should ALWAYS be accompanied by members of a local cadre of trained “foresters”. This, in turn, would allow for the creation of employment for young people and protect our water and biological diversity. It is TOTALLY wrong to have individuals roaming our forests and water catchments UNSUPERVISED
HOTEP!
Good and finally….i hope the Minister and the Ministry are serious, be they are allowing ppl to come here take out herbs and go sell and make money and we just give it to them for free. Also all the ppl comin to do research on our plants, customs, animals, natural medicines, they have databases of all our info, how do we protect those and their use, were they requested to sign any agreements indicating that the information is ours and we shld give permission for its further use…am waiting
Also i do hope that all the Ministries, legal, Agriculture and its respective departments Forestry, fisheries, ECU, etc were involved and understand the importance and need for this!