New Frameworks for the Ownership and Licensing of Traditional Knowledge Associated with Genetic Resources in Africa

This chapter evaluates new national and regional frameworks for the protection of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources (aTK) in Africa. The regional framework, is the Swakopmund Protocol for the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore within the Framework of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) 2010 ; the national statutory frameworks are the Kenyan Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions Act 2016 and the Zambian Protection of Traditional Knowledge Genetic Resources and Expressions of Folklore 2016 , and the constitutional property jurisprudence of the Republic of South Africa 1996. This jurisprudence provides interpretative context for South Africa’s 2016 Regulations on Bio-prospecting, Access and Benefit- Sharing, and of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act 2004, which recognises community ownership and management of traditional knowledge (TK). These new frameworks arguably deviate from other African states, such as Ethiopia and South Africa, who in domesticating the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity enacted legislation and adopted policies that recognise communal ownership but empower Competent National Authorities (CAN) to manage the licensing of aTK, with the participation of communities. The extent of the change which these new communal frameworks bring to the existing state-centric frameworks iTraditional Knowledge; Africa; Regional and National Frameworks; Kenya; South Africa; Ethiopia; Zambia s still uncertain at least in practice