Intellectual Property Rights

Over the past five years, Iwokrama has worked toward agreements relating to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), such as trademarks and copyrights, and Access and Benefit Sharing (A&BS) to guide its work. This work has been supported by the International Development Research Centre and Department for International Development (UK).

Iwokrama seeks at all times to protect the IPR of local stakeholders. Most notably, in 1998 and 1999 Iwokrama helped transfer copyright from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) for work completed by the Makushi Research Unit (MRU). The Centre has also negotiated and drawn up agreements on IPR and benefit sharing relating to the use of verbal and printed information as well as artwork supplied by local collaborators and incorporated in Iwokrama books, booklets, posters, and cards.

Workshops and Meetings

Other activities relating to IPR include an international workshop with key stakeholders, and community-level consultations in Regions 8 and 9. The focuses of these meetings were the need to elaborate the exchanges of benefits between Iwokrama and various stakeholders, and to operationally determine benefit sharing in a context of shared decision-making. This work reiterated the need for a clear definition of relationships between Iwokrama and stakeholders, through recognizing reciprocal contributions, interdependency, and mutual expectations that were identified in a previous report on stakeholder involvement at Iwokrama. It was recommended that the Iwokrama Board of Trustees include key representatives of Guyanese civil society and local communities and that Iwokrama formalize and institute the National Stakeholders Group.

IPR Working Group

During 2002, an internal IPR Working Group was formed. The Working Group benefited greatly from the relevant documents and advice offered by CABI Bioscience and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Members of the IPR Working Group participated in parallel national processes relating to IPR and A&BS. These included attendance at a Workshop on the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in 2001, and a Workshop on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Agro-Biodiversity: Bio-Prospecting, Access and Benefit Sharing in Barbados in 2001. Iwokrama was also represented on the National Advisory Committee on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, convened under the aegis of the Environmental Protection Agency and on the Technical Working Group formed by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation that examines the IPR and other implications of the FTAA agreements for Guyana.

IPR Policies and Protocols

These guide the activities of Iwokrama and cover many aspects of its work:

• Access to genetic resources and benefit sharing from commercial and non-commercial activities.
• Use of the Iwokrama brand name for goods and services.
• Guidelines for research.
• Publication of and conditions for access to databases.
• Access to the Forest for material and non-material use such as filming.
• Supply and acquisition of harvested biological material for commercial and non-commercial use.
• Supply of duplicate herbarium and other preserved specimens and loans of herbarium and other preserved specimens.
• Extraction of timber and non-timber forest products.
• Use of local community knowledge and skills
• Guidelines for tourists visiting the Iwokrama Forest.

The policy and associated protocols is provided to all potential collaborators, suppliers and recipients of tangible and intangible material in order to guide their activities and will be attached to all agreements before they are signed.

Iwokrama greatly welcomes and strongly encourages comments by the public regarding the draft IPR protocols linked at the right.  Please contact David Singh.