Losing Weight The Natural Way
In traditional communities, the knowledge and resources cannot be owned individually. These are communally held. In the case of specialized knowledge, these are held by certain individuals or families who pass it on to their progenies from generation to generation. Some are held by specialists such as shamans or medicine men or women. The practitioners of this knowledge are expected to hold this knowledge on behalf of the community in trust to be used for the welfare of the communities. These are not to be privatized or commoditized.
The issue of commercialization by making the knowledge and its products tradable as a commodity has been intensely debated. One of the arguments that have emerged is that in the event of such commercialization, it is necessary that this has the prior informed consent of the holders of this knowledge and that a share in the economic benefits or profits should flow back to the community which developed this knowledge. However, these are yet to be firmly incorporated into national laws though international acknowledgment of the principles has been made.
Acquiring the biological material such as plants, microorganisms and animals or the traditional knowledge on these biological materials without the prior informed consent of those whose traditional knowledge or biodiversity are taken is called biopiracy. Hoodia earned the reputation as an appetite suppressant after this knowledge was discovered with the indigenous San people. The Hoodia extract has been the basis for a number of products in the weight loss market. After the media raised the issue of biopiracy, a share in the royalties is now offered to the San people. There are isolated examples of recognition of similar claims as Arogyapacha in India.
The principles such as prior informed consent and equitable sharing of the benefits got enshrined as principles in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This convention became operational in 1993. The only countries who are yet to ratify this Convention are Andorra, Somalia, Brunei, United States and Iraq. All countries, under this Convention, had the right to control as well as regulate the commercial exploitation of its natural resources and indigenous knowledge on these resources. Prior informed consent and share in their profits were required to be offered by the bioprospectors. The national governments are expected to control and regulate access to the resources and knowledge.
Today’s market offers a lot of remedies for obesity. But among all these, natural remedies, especially the Hoodia Extracts, are safer and more effective to use compared to the chemical treatments.
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