Ministry of Economic Development Announces Work Programme on Traditional Knowledge

The issue of traditional knowledge has been actively canvassed both within New Zealand and internationally for some years. Within New Zealand a Treaty of Waitangi claim (the WAI 262 claim) by six Maori iwi has raised issues about both cultural and intellectual property, including the inadequacy of conventional intellectual property rights to cater for Maori cultural property and traditional knowledge. At an international level the issue of traditional knowledge and cultural rights is being considered by a variety of bodies namely UNESCO, WIPO, WTO, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the FAO and WHO. At a regional level, the Asia-Pacific Co-operation (“APEC”) has held a symposium on traditional medicine. Further, the Pacific Islands Forum in conjunction with the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme has been working on a draft Regional Model Law for the protection of traditional ecological knowledge since 1999. 

The Ministry of Economic Development has announced a three stage work programme on intellectual property and traditional knowledge. This programme will evolve from information and awareness-raising to identifying problems where intellectual property rights do not match traditional knowledge requirements. The final stage will develop a series of options to address these. Traditional knowledge in the New Zealand context will cover such items as weaving, carving, songs, tribal stories, traditional medicine and environmental knowledge. The paper acknowledges that the development of options is very likely to straddle a range of policy areas including intellectual property, cultural heritage policy, conservation and environmental concerns, access to genetic resources and benefit sharing.