TK(traditional knowledge) has been quite an attention grabber the last few months-from hotch potch state legislations that threaten to reawaken the bygone era of the License Raj, to high voltage discussions at the Green room in Geneva, TKs’ assumed centre stage.
Making inroads into the mountainous terrains of the Hindu Kush, The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICMOD) has launched a project to implement and facilitate an equitable ABS(Access and Benefit Sharing) mechanism in the Eastern Himalayan countries of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region, and more specifically the Eastern Himalayas, is one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots and a treasure house of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The region also has great linguistic and biocultural diversity. These resources provide the basis for the livelihood security of mountain communities.
For a more socially inclusive notion of biodiversity conservation and usage, it is important to facilitate the implementation of the CBD in letter and spirit in all the major biodiversity hotspots in the HKH region. Towards this, the ICIMOD launched a regional programme on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) from Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (TK) in Eastern Himalayas, with support from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). The overall objective of the programme is to facilitate the development and implementation of the CBD’s ABS regime in these regions.
More on the project can be accessed here
