Ethnopharmacology, Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights

Over the last three decades, a great awakening on the link between sustainable livelihood and ecological health has emerged. Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) was conceived as a tool for equity and as an opportunity for sustainable development. In India, the authors have developed the first model of benefit sharing that implemented in letter and spirit Article 8 (j) and Article 15.7 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The authors, while at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), demonstrated that indigenous knowledge systems merit support, recognition and fair and adequate compensation. The prerequisite for developing an effective ABS regime is building up a comprehensive information system on all pertinent aspects of availability, diversity, distribution, economic uses and potentials, conservation status of biogenetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. The major challenge is to develop appropriate national policies and legal framework to provide a conducive and enabling environment to undertake bioprospecting and biotechnological innovations, giving adequate attention to the administrative as well as the legal aspects of IPR protection, benefit-sharing procedures and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the associated traditional knowledge. The chapter details the development of ethnobiology in India, bioprospecting and national legislations for the protection of traditional knowledge and sustainable utilization of bioresources.