What are Traditional Resource Rights?Knowledge and traditional resources are central to the maintenance ofidentity for indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles.Therefore, control over these resources is of central concern in theirstruggle over land and territory. Effective links between external forcesand local communities is likely to be through the development of sui generissystem(s) that must first protect indigenous and local communities andensure their control over land, territory and resource before issues ofaccess and transfer can be discussed. Equitable benefit sharing from thewider use and application of the knowledge, innovations and practices ofindigenous peoples and local communities, as well as the biological resourcesconserved on their lands and territories, can then be negotiated. Adequateand effective protection and benefit sharing mechanisms inevitably requirea shift from economic or ecological-determined legal and political frameworksto a rights-driven system. The term Traditional Resource Rights (TRR) has emerged to define themany "bundles of rights" that can be used for protection, compensation,and conservation. The change in terminology from Intellectual PropertyRights (IPR) to Traditional Resource Rights reflects an attempt to buildon the concept of IPR protection and compensation, while recognising thattraditional resources - both tangible and intangible - are also coveredunder a significant number of international agreements that can be usedto form the basis for a sui generis system. "Traditional resources"include plants, animals, and other material objects that may have sacred,ceremonial, heritage, or aesthetic qualities. "Property" forindigenous peoples and local communities frequently has intangible, spiritualmanifestations, and, although worthy of protection, can belong to no humanbeing. Indigenous and traditional communities are increasingly involvedin market economies, and are seeing an ever-growing number of their resourcestraded in those markets. Even so, for many, privatisation or commoditisationof their resources is not only foreign, but incomprehensible or even unthinkable. TRR is an integrated rights concept which recognises the inextricablelink between cultural and biological diversity, and is guided by humanrights principles including: basic human rights; the right to self-determination;collective rights; land and territorial rights; religious freedom; theright to development; the right to privacy and prior informed consent;environmental integrity; intellectual property rights; neighbouring rights;the right to enter into legal agreements; rights to protection of culturalproperty, folklore and cultural heritage; the recognition of cultural landscapes;recognition of customary law and practice, and; farmers' rights. (A tablesetting out these rights and others with the international agreementswhich support them can be found below). These rights are mutually supportive and entirely consistent with theConvention on Biological Diversity since the destiny of traditional peopleslargely determines and is determined by, the state of the world's biologicaldiversity. Significantly, they are consistent, too, with the requirementsof GATT/WTO and FAO/IUPGR. The TRR processThe TRR concept can be implemented by identifying guiding principlesfor legislative processes, and by forming the basis for practical instrumentsand mechanisms that guarantee protection, benefit sharing, and politicaland financial support for indigenous and local communities. Governments now have a unique opportunity to support work in the developmentof a TRR-type sui generis system. By doing so they will be taking an importantstep towards synergising and harmonising their human rights commitmentswith biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and global tradeagreements. Governments should also press for the establishment of an Ombudsman'sOffice that would not only advise indigenous and local communities on theprotection of their resource rights and on benefit sharing, but representthem in their complaints relating to infringements of their resource rights. Northern governments could assist these processes by providing resourcesand expertise for the development of practical instruments (such as MaterialTransfer Agreements, Information Transfer Agreements, contracts and covenants)and mechanisms that embody TRR principles. Financial and political supportfor indigenous and local communities can also be provided through new guidelinesfor policies and projects. To protect traditional resources all such projectsand policies should be planned and implemented in collaboration with indigenousand local communities affected. This will require the development of newguidelines and laws for defining and implementing prior informed consent,as well as pushing for the expansion of Farmers' Rights in FAO/IUPGR andTRR in WTO and the CBD. Traditional Resource RightsKey to Supporting Agreements follows the table KEYLegally binding agreements in force (with number of State Parties)
Non legal documents
Back to: TRRTable | TRR Key| Top of page |Welcome to theProgramme for TRR Maintained by Graham Dutfield (wgtrr.ocees@mansfield.ox.ac.uk).Last update 6 March 1997 |
