Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Intellectual Property Rights: an Enabling Tool for Development with Identity

http://www.ifad.org/english/indigenous/pub/documents/Indigeknowledge.pdf

This paper reviews how indigenous knowledge can be used to document imperative information, like botanical records, without loosing community ownership of the knowledge.“In 2003-2004, an ethnobotanical documentation project was conducted in the Subanencommunity in Lakewood, Zamboanga del Sur, western Mindanao in the Philippines”. The indigenous peoples recognized that their knowledge was at risk for being lost. This paper describes how delicate information was handled with cultural sensitivity. There was a multi-disciplinary approach which included the local indigenous tribal experts. This paper is a good example of collaboration with the local indigenous peoples.