Supporting Livestock Keeper's Rights in Rajasthan

Natural Justice is in Rajasthan, India, working with Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, Kalpavriksh, and others to focus on the Raika's continuing exclusion from the Kumbalgarh Sanctuary. Read other blog postings for more information about an August 2010 international meeting on livestock keepers' rights; the Raika's July 2010 appeal to the Forest Department; a March 2010 workshop on biocultural community protocols for livestock keepers; and a case...

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Kalpavriksh Newsletter: Focus on Pastoral Communities

The latest issue of Kalpavriksh's newsletter, "People in Conservation: Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Security", is a special issue on pastoral communities. It includes news about a village's success, reports from workshops and conferences on the commons, the Forest Rights Act, a Biosphere Reserve, and women pastoralists, and case studies from the Deccan Plateau, Rajasthan, and Balochistan (Pakistan). On page 6, it also includes discussion...

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Special Rapporteur on the Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples

James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, gave the keynote speech at the opening of the 18th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folkore, on May 9 in Geneva. In his speech, he stressed that Indigenous peoples' demands to maintain control over their traditional knowledge and cultural expressions...

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Analyzing the Nagoya Protocol in New York

Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) is currently in New York to take part in the information and preparatory meeting for Indigenous peoples and local communities on access and benefit sharing (ABS) and traditional knowledge entitled, "The Nagoya Protocol and the Way Ahead". The meeting, which took place from May 21-22, is organized and supported by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa, the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), Indigenous...

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New Website on Biocultural Heritage Launched

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has launched a new website on biocultural heritage. Krystyna Swiderska (senior researcher, IIED) describes biocultural heritage as "the interlinked biological and cultural heritage that arises from the interaction between culture, knowledge, biodiversity and landscapes". The new website is intended "to promote understanding of traditional knowledge as biocultural systems, and of the...

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IDRC and GIZ Project Launches in South Africa

Kabir Bavikatte, Gino Cocchiaro and Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) participated in the launching workshop of the Open AIR (African Innovation Research and Training: Exploring the Role of Intellectual Property in Open Development). The workshop was held in Cape Town from May 17-20 and attracted participants from different parts of Africa and some from beyond the continent. The workshop sought to kick off the 3-year Open AIR project, which is...

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UEBT Meetings on ABS and Biodiversity

From May 4-5 in Paris, the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) hosted a back-to-back experts meeting on access and benefit sharing (ABS) and biotrade and a conference on "The Strategic Importance of Biodiversity: The Beauty of Sourcing with Respect". Participants in the experts meeting included, among others, Natural Justice associate Dan Robinson (University of New South Wales), Claudio Chiarolla (Institute for Sustainable Development and International...

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ABS Capacity Development with Lusophone Countries

From 3-6 May, Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) co-facilitated the first Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Capacity Development Workshop for African lusophone countries in Maputo, Mozambique. The workshop was hosted by the Ministério para a Coordenação da Acção Ambiental (Mozambique's Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Action) as well as the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa (ABS Initiative). Approximately 35 participants...

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Joint CBD Submission on REDD+ Safeguards

Together with the Centre for International Environmental Law, the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, Kenya Young Greens, the Rainforest Foundation Norway, and BirdLife International, Natural Justice developed a submission on REDD+ safeguards for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Natural Justice stressed that "In the discussion of biodiversity and social safeguards relating to...

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Bhutan: The Policy and Practice of Happiness

The National Biodiversity Center of Bhutan recently hosted a multistakeholder workshop on access and benefit sharing (ABS), which was facilitated by Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) and Morten Tvedt (Fridtjof Nansen Institute). The outcomes of the workshop resulted in extensive discussions with the members of the National Biodiversity Center and eventually a working draft of a national ABS policy that is aligned with Bhutan's current law,...

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