Quick Fix Diets

In traditional communities, the knowledge and resources cannot be owned individually. These are communally held. In the case of specialized knowledge, these are held by certain individuals or families who pass it on to their progenies from generation to generation. Some are held by specialists such as shamans or medicine men or women. The practitioners of this knowledge are expected to hold this knowledge on behalf of the community in trust to be used for the welfare of the communities. These are not to be privatized or commoditized.

There has been an intense debate on bringing such traditional knowledge under the intellectual property regime so that these can be commercialized. A predominant concern has been about the rights of the holders of these knowledge and related biodiversity. The prior informed consent of the owners or holders of this knowledge is to be obtained. A share in the profits that results from the commercialization of the knowledge and related natural resource are also to be given to the community. However, governments are yet to firmly incorporate these in their national laws. Nevertheless, these have become accepted principles internationally.

Acquiring the biological material such as plants, microorganisms and animals or the traditional knowledge on these biological materials without the prior informed consent of those whose traditional knowledge or biodiversity are taken is called biopiracy. Hoodia earned the reputation as an appetite suppressant after this knowledge was discovered with the indigenous San people. The Hoodia extract has been the basis for a number of products in the weight loss market. After the media raised the issue of biopiracy, a share in the royalties is now offered to the San people. There are isolated examples of recognition of similar claims as Arogyapacha in India.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the international instrument that enunciated prior informed consent, and access and benefit sharing as the principles to guide such commercial exploitation of traditional knowledge. CBD became an international instrument of law in 1993. CBD provided for the right of countries to its genetic resource and knowledge to regulate and control them. The bioprospectors who intend to access these resources and knowledge are to obtain prior informed consent. These accesses are to be controlled and regulated by the respective national governments. All the countries have ratified CBD except for Andorra, Brunei, Somalia, Iraq, and United States.

Today’s market offers a lot of remedies for obesity. But among all these, natural remedies, especially the Hoodia Extracts, are safer and more effective to use compared to the chemical treatments.

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