Trading in Knowledge

Chapter 20

Documentation of TraditionalKnowledge: People's BiodiversityRegisters

Ghate Utkarsh¹

Globalization and its attendant impacts such as commercialization, monopolization and economic inequity raise numerous concerns. One of the most important of these is that knowledge and other public goods are rapidly being appropriated, transformed and marketed by commercial concerns, without any benefits being shared with the original producers. The infamous patents relating to neem, turmeric and basmati are good evidence of this process, which is being accelerated by the TRIPS Agreement. It is a major challenge to provide physical access to biodiversity and related traditional knowledge while retaining intellectual property rights (IPRs) and ensuring ...