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Phillips, Peter W.B.; Zhang, Sidi; Williams, Tara; DeBusschere, Laural --- "Canada’s First Nations’ Policies and Practices Related to Managing Traditional Knowledge" [2012] ELECD 335; in Bubela, Tania; Gold, Richard E. (eds), "Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge

Editor(s): Bubela, Tania; Gold, Richard E.

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442238

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Canada’s First Nations’ Policies and Practices Related to Managing Traditional Knowledge

Author(s): Phillips, Peter W.B.; Zhang, Sidi; Williams, Tara; DeBusschere, Laural

Number of pages: 39

Extract:

8. Canada's First Nations' policies and
practices related to managing
traditional knowledge
Peter W.B. Phillips, Sidi Zhang, Tara Williams
and Laural DeBusschere

INTRODUCTION

There is increasing policy and commercial interest in using or controlling
traditional knowledge (TK) related to genetic resources. In part, this has
emerged from a growing recognition that indigenous groups are holders of
valuable knowledge and practices that may be used to address problems that
face global society in ways that the current Western knowledge system cannot.
The use of traditional knowledge and associated genetic resources in modern
biotechnology has created a complex tangle of claims over rights, entitlements
and expectations of access, ownership and reward.
The Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (Mayor, 1994) defines traditional knowledge:

The indigenous people of the world possess an immense knowledge of their envi-
ronments, based on centuries of living close to nature. Living in and from the rich-
ness and variety of complex ecosystems, they have an understanding of the
properties of plants and animals, the functioning of ecosystems and the techniques
for using and managing them that is particular and often detailed. In rural commu-
nities in developing countries, locally occurring species are relied on for many ­
sometimes all ­ foods, medicines, fuel, building materials and other products.
Equally, people's knowledge and perceptions of the environment, and their rela-
tionships with it, are often important elements of cultural identity.

The essence of TK is that it is a cumulative body of knowledge ...