Conservación, desarrollo, aprovechamiento social
y protección de los conocimientos y recursos
tradicionales en México

Project Definition

General Objectives

a)    To contribute to the preservation of the material and cultural heritage of groups that have been excluded from the benefits of social and economical development, such as indigenous peoples, rural and agricultural communities.

b)    To join traditional knowledge (TK) and scientific and technological knowledge in the productive practices of the communities, in order to contribute to the solution of specific problems and to the social development in a sustainable way respectful to local cultures and the environment.

c)    To strengthen appreciation and respect of cultural diversity, with a specific focus on appreciation of traditional knowledges as well as their promotion and protection.

         Specific Objectives

To contribute to the strengthening and development of indigenous communities’ skills to incorporate traditional knowledges (TK) in innovation processes that allow them to solve problems in accordance with the forms they define them, as well as to solve conflicts associated to the management, property and use of knowledge and resources.

To achieve, through dialogue and experience exchange between communities and researchers of various disciplines, new developments of processes and products that bring benefits to such communities, as well as the appropriate mechanisms of knowledge protection associated to the following resources: corn, wood and firewood, agave, palm, medicinal and food plants, aquatic species and resources.

Results

1)    Effective measures to incorporate, with due protection of intellectual property, traditional knowledges in innovations based on the aforementioned resources.

2)    Training of community members to participate in the discussion and implementation of such measures.

3)    Proposal of legislative initiatives and public policies that integrate measures for preservation, fostering, social better use and jurisdictional protection to traditional knowledges and resources, which will be discussed with organisms in charge of policies and negotiations on science, technology and innovation.

4)    Training of community members and university students as intellectual promoters and negotiators.

5)    To join traditional and scientific-technological knowledges in innovation processes that benefit specific communities.

Work organization

Work is developed in two great axes: one of theoretical-practical research and another of field research and training.

In the first one work is done within five thematic approaches (epistemological, ethical-political, ethno-ecological, jurisdictional-economical, and socio-anthropological)

In the second one, there are eight action-research groups (ARG).

All the groups have an intense interaction among them, thus making the project work both inter- and trans-disciplinary.

Action-research groups

General seminars and workshops

General seminars, which are carried out every two months, are one of the main meeting and discussion spaces for all the groups, although it is not the only one. In them, problems and topics relevant to the project are dealt with, with papers presented by participants and invited specialists from Mexico and other countries. Also in them there is a follow up of the work done by the thematic approach groups and the action-research ones.

There are also workshops dealing with methodological and organizational matters for the training of community members and for the discussion of issues within the same communities.