 ID: 136207
Added: 2009-02-12 10:26
Modified: 2009-10-26 12:56
Refreshed: 2012-02-09 21:23
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Document(s) 7 of 9
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Recipient: Emily Taylor
Hometown: Toronto
University: St. Mary’s University
Award: IDRC Internship Award
Masters thesis topic: Sharing Benefits or Enclosure of the Commons? Investigating the Compatibility of Global, National and Local Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Mechanisms in Peru
Research Location: Peru
“We need to protect not only local resources, but also local knowledge and expertise. Diversity on all levels, whether it’s biological or cultural, is important and mutually reinforcing.” – Emily Taylor
Emily Taylor’s research has led her to politicians’ offices in Lima, Peru, and to an agricultural collective in the heart of the Andes.
In 2008, with the support of an IDRC Internship Award, Taylor spent two months in Peru, probing the connections between biological diversity, national laws, and traditional indigenous practices.
Earlier, as an undergraduate biology student at Union College in New York, Taylor was interested in biodiversity and natural resources management, but she didn’t often consider their international aspects.
That changed when she travelled to Kenya to study at the University of Nairobi and intern with various Kenyan organizations.
“It was my first time travelling and I came back with a new perspective on global politics and issues related to systemic poverty,” she says.
This newfound awareness led her to work as a summer student in IDRC’s Innovation, Technology and Society program in 2006, where her research focused on the management of genetic resources. She became particularly intrigued by the issue of biopiracy, which is when people or companies obtain legal rights — usually through patents — over animal, mineral, or plant substances used by indigenous or local communities.
“I was fascinated by the practices that encourage the conservation of diversity… My fear was that commercial interests were trumping conservation.” Protecting biodiversity and traditional knowledge In 2007, the internship award brought Taylor back to IDRC. As part of her Master’s degree in international development at St. Mary’s University, she continued to research biopatenting issues, focusing her work on Peru.
Peru, Taylor says, remains one of the most biodiverse countries in the world in part because local and indigenous communities have used their knowledge and practices, such as plant breeding and seed exchange, to manage genetic resources and create new crop variations.
In 2002, Peru became the first country to enact a national law to protect, preserve, and develop the collective knowledge of indigenous people, and to promote its wider use. The law requires external actors to obtain prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples before using their resources and knowledge.
Taylor decided to explore the law’s impact on indigenous communities’ means of governing the protection of their resources.
After interviewing policymakers and legal experts, she set out to an agricultural collective near Cuzco – the Potato Park – to gain a community perspective. The Potato Park  Here, community members protect, exchange, and develop crops according to their legal traditions. Representatives from six indigenous communities form the park’s council, which regulates the park’s genetic diversity.
Taylor’s first task was to stand in front of the community assembly and ask permission to conduct her research.
“They had an active debate about whether I should be allowed to do my research. It was amazing because I could see that this community had vibrant political processes.”
The community accepted Taylor’s research, and outlined how she would work with them.
“I gained important firsthand knowledge about their ways of organizing… It was different from researchers who take their own methodology to a community.”
After discussing the law and its impact with community representatives, Taylor then took her questions to the wider community.
Making the Law Work Taylor found that both policymakers and the community recognize the law’s usefulness because biopiracy is a significant threat that cannot be prevented by traditional governance mechanisms alone.
She recommends protecting biodiversity and traditional knowledge through a community-based, co-management model where communities work together with different levels of government.
Her research also uncovered challenges to this cooperation. For example, community members said the law focuses too narrowly on biopiracy threats while ignoring other threats, such as encroaching urban centres. Another obstacle is the deep-rooted suspicion of Western law among many indigenous people.
Taylor’s research calls for more exchange between policymakers and communities to adapt and implement the law, including meaningful dialogue with indigenous people about Western legal tools. She suggests creating new institutional structures to help indigenous communities participate more fully in protecting their traditional knowledge and genetic resources. Local and Global Links  Taylor will share her findings with policymakers in Lima to help them better understand community-level concerns. She also hopes her research will help other governments formulate effective biodiversity protection laws.
Taylor says her research will be most useful to the Potato Park communities. “They are a positive example to share with the world and other indigenous communities, and I hope to be a part of that sharing.”
Taylor presented her findings at the International Association for the Study of the Commons’ 2008 conference in Cheltenham, England and plans to pursue questions raised by her research.
“We need to examine which governance mechanisms can protect not only local resources, but also the knowledge and expertise held by people at the local level.”
Written by Angela Pereira, with IDRC's Communications division
Open file : etaylor.wmv
Document(s) 7 of 9
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