Two senior Kenyan researchers have differed with a United Nations (UN) agency over the stand that it has taken regarding protections of community rights and traditional knowledge.

Traditional knowledge encompasses the beliefs, knowledge, practices, innovations, arts, spirituality, and other forms of cultural experience and expression that belong to indigenous communities worldwide.

The two Kenyan researchers have warned that weaker nations face the risk of losing control over their traditional knowledge if the stand by the agency received global favour.

Their argument is supported by the fact that Kenya lost its Kiondo basket trademark to Japan after the same was registered there in 2006 and an attempt by a British company to register Kikoi as its trademark failed and this time the Kenyan government has moved swiftly to register the Kikoi trademark.

The Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) Managing Director Prof James Odek told Xinhua that the Kikoi would be registered as a protected trademark under the National Museums of Kenya.

"Kenya and other developing countries lose billions of shillings annually to foreigners who register locally made artefacts as their own," he warned.

The Kiondo is an African traditional basket, popular amongst the Akamba Agikuyu and Maasai women. In the 1980s due to the rapid growth of tourism in Kenya, the Kiondo became a popular souvenir item for tourists.

Even though kiondos originated from Kenya, the patent rights belong to Japan which has know registered the trademark and now kiondo makers pay it levies to use the name in marketing the popular crafts.

KIPI was established under the Industrial Property Act 2001 to administer and promote Industrial property rights (IPRs) in Kenya.

Its main functions include registration of patents, trademarks, industrial resigns, utility models and technovations and at the same time promoting innovation and inventive activities, screening of technology transfer agreements and licenses among other functions.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) at several international forums has been insisting on using existing intellectual property standards for managing access to the information.

WIPO is one of the 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world."

The stand taken by the organization has been interpreted as a contravention by WIPO of its own main mandate whose aim is to develop rules for protecting rights over traditional knowledge, such as indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants, which conventional intellectual property laws do not cover.

It is the responsibility of the agency to develop a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.

However, a comparative study on customary approaches to protecting and sharing traditional knowledge and biological resources, by the Kenyan researchers carried out among the Mijikenda at the coast and the Maasai in the Rift Valley, rendered the argument by WIPO irrelevant.

Chief Legal Officer at the Nairobi-based International Center of Insect Physiology (ICIPE) Peter Munyi and Associate Project Officer at Untied National Environment Programme (UNEP) Doris Mutta chose the sites owing to the social, cultural and ecological diversity of each.

Mutta in the study called for legal recognition, institutionalization and empowerment of the local communities in the management of resources.

This institutionalization process should include remuneration of those members of the community involved in the management of biological resources.

She said customary laws should be integrated into Kenya's legal system more than they presently are, to include securing ownership of biological resources for the communities.

Mutta was categorical that capacity building on management of biological resources of communities should be enhanced.

"This should include reconciling the values placed on biological resources by local communities with other values and practice such as biological research and ecotourism," she told Xinhua.

According to Munyi, for the advance of the national policy on traditional medicine, traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore, there should be systems for defining ownership and responsibility under law in a culturally sensitive and appropriate fashion, without leading to an erosion of confidence and security for communities.

"In view of the policy developments at the global level, there is urgent need for strong access and benefit sharing regulations to facilitate access to bio-cultural heritage while ensuring that benefits are equitably shared in a timely fashion," he said.

"In this context consideration to amend the Environmental Management and Coordination (Conservation of Biological Diversity and Resources, Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing) Regulations 2006 should be made," he added.

Munyi recommended for the establishment of the Traditional Knowledge (TK) Registers as a form of TK. "Capacity building in formal recording and value adding should be an important component of the TK protection strategy should be established," he said. According to the researchers, international policy should recognize collective rights and decision-making and means of sharing benefits equitably among communities.

"Ancestral rights to control knowledge cannot be extinguished, even if knowledge has been shared with others, because of its vital role in survival and identity," the study emphasized.

(Source: Xinhua)

2013-07-17