Poor nations urged to protect traditional knowledge

Kenya currently does not have a mechanism that would enable an inventor of traditional medicine to be rewarded, and the practitioners say the process of patenting their findings, then monitoring their use is tedious.

Medical practitioners and researchers involved in chemical analysis of traditional medicine at the University of Nairobi and Kenya Medical Research institute (Kemri) say that time is running out and the country needs a traditional medicine policy immediately.

The closest Kenya has come to initiating the process of compensation for traditional knowledge is through the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) regulations.

Genetic resources
They give licensing procedures to those planning to carry out activities involving access to genetic resources for the purposes of research, bio-prospecting, conservation, industrial application and commercial use. It however fails to define how benefit sharing should be carried out.

Although the UN Convention on Biological Diversity requires member countries to equitably share benefits from the use of genetic resources and related knowledge, the convention has no legally binding rules to manage access to biological resources and traditional knowledge 20 years after it was created.

This delay, researchers say, is accelerating the loss of bio-diversity and the unfair commercial exploitation of knowledge and genetic resources long protected by traditional communities.

“Intellectual property rights have been developed to suit commercial interests,” says Swiderska.

“Holders of traditional knowledge, who tend to be poor and marginalised, also deserve tailored rights, which should be based on customary laws and developed closely with the knowledge holders.”

According to Mr Momanyi, African countries should develop their own set of rules within the UN system which will protect the communities from being exploited by the multinational drugs companies or other entities because of the existing loopholes.