Safeguarding indigenous knowledge and cultural tradition while promoting sustainable tourism
List of Authors
Mohd. Zawawi Awang Nik , Rohazar Wati Zuallcobley
Keyword
Intellectual property. Traditional knowledge, safeguard, sustainable. Tourism
Abstract
Malaysia is promoting tourism as new economic activities and growth. The income generated from tourism could spur new economic activities that will result in increased household income in the participating territory. Yet one of the downside of that could be envisage is the unconscious disclosure of traditional knowledge and cultural tradition that are valuable to the local community. Indigenous knowledge that are link to genetic resources are valuable assets that could be exploited by bio-pirates under the pretext of tourism. These genetic resources are intangible properties. The United Nation charter stated that“ Indigenous people have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their traditional knowledge and this include to protect and develop their intellectual property over such traditional knowledge”. These would include tradition-based literary, artistic or scientific works, performances, inventions, scientific discoveries, designs, marks, names and undisclosed information. This paper will highlight the danger of such disclosure by looking at some cases that had occurred overseas such as the case of “Hoodia” and “Turmeric”. It will end with some suggestion as a guidance on some best practices that could be put in place to safeguards our traditional knowledge while spur-heading local sustainable tourism.
Reference
1. Access to Biological Resources and Benefit Sharing Act 2017.
2. The Patent Act 1983.
3. Malaysia Intellectual Property Annual Report 2009
4. Hoodia Case https://link.springer.com>chapter
5. Turmeric Case https://slideshare.net>mobile
6. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) report 2019
7. UNESCO
8. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
9. IGC on Traditional knowledge and genetic resouces reports (WIPO)