Working Group on Article 8(j)
Refers to work under the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) that acknowledges the need to protect traditional knowledge. Article 8(j) of the Convention recognises the need to respect the skills and practices of Indigenous peoples and local communities, to ensure consent for the wider use of these skills and practices, and to ensure equitable benefit-sharing if such use takes place. As stated in the Preambular paragraph of the Convention text, the member countries recognise the desirability of sharing equitably the benefits arising from the use of traditional knowledge. (Source: GRAIN http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=97#_edn1)
Article 8(j) states:
Each contracting Party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate:
Subject to national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge innovations and practices
www.biodiv.org/programmes/socio-eco/traditional/default.asp