This book considers the issue of biodiversity in developing countries in relation to intellectual-property rights, community rights and human rights. Drawing together a number of case studies of developing countries rich in biological and genetic resources including India, South Africa and Brazil, the book examines the access to PGRs and their utilizations in the contexts of scientific and commercial oriented activities pursued both in the source and user countries. Exploring how community rights are protected in national biodiversity-related regulations and some international legal instruments, Marcelin Tonye Mahop also discusses the relationship between community rights and human rights in the context of biodiversity. The book looks at the issue of bio-piracy, asking whether this phenomenon should only be seen as a North-South clash, whereby biodiversity rich countries of the Southern Hemisphere blame developed countries and their actors as its principal perpetrators. While recognizing that developing countries' actors play a role in this bio-piracy phenomenon, the book goes on to suggest alternative measures for the legal protection of community rights at the national level with the possibility of national and international enforceability. Essential reading for students and scholars of intellectual-property rights, biodiversity regulations and human rights, this book will also be of great value to researchers and members of professional organizations working in these subject areas. National and regional negotiators in the international processes dealing with the issues covered in the book will find it a useful tool that can help them to understand various facets of these processes.

The TRIPS Agreement (for trade-related intellectual property rights) provides for the general protection of geographical indications (GIs) of product origin, including for example the special protection of wines and spirits and for the creation of a multilateral register for wines. The African Group of countries has been in the forefront of countries agitating in the World Trade Organization TRIPS Council for the extension of this special protection and of the multilateral register to industries which are of interest to developing countries, primarily agriculture. The so-called "extension question" is the central feature of the Doha Development Agenda at both the WTO and World Intellectual Property Organization. This book provides some empirical evidence and applied legal and economic reasoning to this debate. It provides both a general review of the key issues and a series of case studies from six Anglophone and four Francophone countries in Africa. These focus on major agricultural commodities such as coffee, cotton, cocoa and tea, as well as more specific and local products such as Argan oil and Oku white honey.

This book considers the issue of biodiversity in developing countries in relation to intellectual-property rights, community rights and human rights. Drawing together a number of case studies of developing countries rich in biological and genetic resources including India, South Africa and Brazil, the book examines the access to PGRs and their utilizations in the contexts of scientific and commercial oriented activities pursued both in the source and user countries. Exploring how community rights are protected in national biodiversity-related regulations and some international legal instruments, Marcelin Tonye Mahop also discusses the relationship between community rights and human rights in the context of biodiversity. The book looks at the issue of bio-piracy, asking whether this phenomenon should only be seen as a North South clash, whereby biodiversity rich countries of the Southern Hemisphere blame developed countries and their actors as its principal perpetrators. While recognizing that developing countries' actors play a role in this bio-piracy phenomenon, the book goes on to suggest alternative measures for the legal protection of community rights at the national level with the possibility of national and international enforceability.

Essential reading for students and scholars of intellectual-property rights, biodiversity regulations and human rights, this book will also be of great value to researchers and members of professional organizations working in these subject areas. National and regional negotiators in the international processes dealing with the issues covered in the book will find it a useful tool that can help them to understand various facets of these processes.

The TRIPS Agreement (for trade-related intellectual property rights) provides for the general protection of geographical indications (GIs) of product origin, including for example the special protection of wines and spirits and for the creation of a multilateral register for wines. The African Group of countries has been in the forefront of countries agitating in the World Trade Organization TRIPS Council for the extension of this special protection and of the multilateral register to industries which are of interest to developing countries, primarily agriculture. The so-called "extension question" is the central feature of the Doha Development Agenda at both the WTO and World Intellectual Property Organization. This book provides some empirical evidence and applied legal and economic reasoning to this debate. It provides both a general review of the key issues and a series of case studies from six Anglophone and four Francophone countries in Africa. These focus on major agricultural commodities such as coffee, cotton, cocoa and tea, as well as more specific and local products such as Argan oil and Oku white honey.