| dc.description.abstract | Traditional knowledge has been around for centuries and has gained over the
centuries and adapted to the local culture and environment, traditional knowledge is
transmitted orally from generation to generation. It tends to be collectively owned and
takes the form of stories, songs, folklore, proverbs, cultural values, beliefs, rituals,
community laws, local language, and agricultural practices, including the development
of plant species and animal breeds. The Swakopmund Protocol has been one of the
legislations that has been put in place to protect Traditional knowledge and has to be
reviewed. With Traditional communities playing a huge role at the in the Namibian
communities, the aim of the protocol is to protect them by establishing its
effectiveness.
The mini thesis aims to study the intellectual property system in Namibia as a system
of protection which is inadequate for protecting Traditional knowledge, and as a result
there is a huge need for Namibia to develop its national sui generis system for
protecting TK. There are so many gaps existing in Namibia with regards to the existing
intellectual property laws that need to be filled with all the results from the research
this mini this will provide, it could provide the direction the country needs to go in.
The research focuses on the effectiveness of the Swakopmund Protocol that was
implemented in 2010. Questions in the paper to be answered are such as what the
protocol has achieved in the time that it has been in place, but more importantly how
effective the Protocol is in protecting TK within the country and ways forward to
protecting TK and making the protection as efficient as possible to extending
necessary protection for TK and allow the next generations of people to have access
to such knowledge. The mini thesis will be a desk-based research focusing on the
Swakopmund Protocol.
There is today a growing appreciation of the value of traditional knowledge. This
knowledge is valuable not only to those who depend on it in their daily lives, but to
modern industry and agriculture as well. Many widely used products, such as plantbased
medicines, health products and cosmetics, are derived from traditional
knowledge. Other valuable products based on traditional knowledge include
agricultural and non-wood forest products as well as handicraft. | |
