Workshop presentation report: Natural Justice/CS Consulting – Access and Benefit-Sharing agreements and Intellectual Property

Via Zoom digital meeting 19 February 2021 09h30 – 12h30

The overall objective of the training workshop was to provide technical training on intellectual property, and access and benefit sharing as it related to communities in the Venda region in the Limpopo Province.  The main aims of the presentation included an overview of the current intellectual property regime in the protection of communities’ indigenous knowledge as well as the simultaneous introduction  of protection techniques.   The training workshop was attended by members of the Traditional Council and esteemed members of the community.  The workshop was delivered by Mr Thato Moloto, an independent consultant of CS Consulting, with introductory and preliminary remarks from Prof W Alberts, from the University of Johannesburg, assisting CS Consulting.  The nub of Mr Moloto’s presentation focused extensively on the importance of balancing the liabilities of obtaining intellectual property protection and the potential long term benefits.  Importantly, the pitfalls of accepting one-time lump sum payments especially with respect to possible derivatives which was duly noted and community members where made aware of the challenges.  The role of third parties and protecting accesses to genetic resources by host communities, through exceptions to patent requirements, was discussed.  Also, the dangers of failing to secure confidential information, and how it could undermine patent applications, were debated in the context of hoodia. Lastly, the legislative scheme for the regulation of bio piracy and bio prospecting must be explored and taken seriously as a protective measure for the communities.  While the training workshop was built on the on-going work on bio cultural protocol initiatives by Natural Justice in the region, it also laid the foundation of future protection mechanisms in mapping the collective knowledge of the communities.  At the conclusion of the presentation, participants stressed the importance of establishing networks, strengthening their capacity as a community, as well as exchanging and protecting their knowledge, information and strategies on innovations around the biological and cultural resources in their region.