Projects – Setting Up an Environmental Law Center

This will provide a documentation center that will have access to biodiversity related legal resources. Examples are ECOLEX which has access to legal and Policy instruments.

Also, to have access to the ABS clearing house and other resources to give relevant information and ad also provide networks to both users of genetic resources and associated Traditional knowledge.

In addition, it will also be a research center to bring together intellectuals and advocates of climate change and policy:

  1. Practice of traditional medicine and regulatory legislation
  2. Reorganization and management of traditional medicine associations
  3. Research and product development
  4. Documentation, information sharing, baseline, data collection
  5. Biodiversity conservation and sustainable harvesting
  6. Global Networking and Collaboration
  7. Intellectual Property Rights Protection

With regard to intellectual property rights protection, one has to take into account that

  • Most African Countries do not have national policies
  • There are also no structures (e.g. government departments or ministries responsible for Indigenous Knowledge)
  • There are no adequate laws to protect Indigenous knowledge
  • There is not much awareness of the citizenry of the vast economic value of traditional knowledge, so there is general apathy towards improving traditional Knowledge.
  • Most governments of the individual African courtiers pay lip service to the conventions and other legislation, though the laws are on their statute books, nothing is achieved.
  • The general knowledge about Intellectual property is very low, so there is not much awareness of its huge potential for economic growth.
  • The conventional Intellectual Property system cannot protect indigenous knowledge adequately.