Traditional Medicine Practice in Nigeria
Prof. Turner T. Isoun, the immediate past minister for Science and Technology during a conference on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for traditional medicine and practice observed that 'International drug development agencies are now looking to natural medicine plants as a source of new drugs; what is referred to as 'bioprospecting'. This development is making herbal practitioners uncomfortable.
The major problem here is that without a strong IPR regime, the traditional medical practitioners may be unwilling to disclose their traditionally inherited recipes and skills.
You may want to ask 'what is this IPR' like my herbal practitioner friend quizzed when village voice visited his office.
Summarily, The IPR grants certain legal rights for the protection of inventions, which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, literary and artistic fields.
Some developing countries like India have various benefits sharing arrangements and intellectual property rights models for the protection of traditional knowldge and practice.
The knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant to biodiversity (traditional knowledge) in Nigeria are legally protected under Article 8(J) according to Prof Maurice Ewu, the former director, Bioresources, Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP) (most people associate him with INEC) who maintained they are under serious threat of erosion.
Village voice study revealed that many communities where conservation of herbs are done have remained poor because healers refuse or don't accept any compensation or payment for the services they provide to individuals within and outside their community.
In addition, most times, the local healers do not pluck more plants than are necessary for use, and so forgo an opportunity of accumulating wealth by processing the herbal diversity in large quantities and selling or dispensing them to others.
In contrast, many national and international corporations, have no hesitation in extracting biodiversity without taking care to regenerate the same process that produce the herbs.
While we wait for Nigeria to develop a national policy that will cater for the traditional medicine practitioner in the village, Village voice hopes that an existing recommendation is looked into, that will favour the ordinary man.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) study on the role of IPR in the sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge can serve as a guide.
The recommendations are under four kinds of incentives for “rewarding innovation, be it individual, group or community. {quotes align=right}These rewards are in material and non-material forms, paid to individuals, such as royalties from patent, copyright or trademarks. Others are, biodiversity user fees, monetary rewards, equipments, and fellowship awards, land assignment arising from those who license technologies of herbs, or animated recipes created by individuals”.{/quotes}
The non material rewards for individuals could include invitations to lectures in school, (especially the Pharmacognosy department) centers of learning and research, invitation to conferences, workshops attaching the name of the innovator, placing their photographs in village hall or district council as outstanding innovators or giving them press coverage.
Community reward in material form can be in form of mobilization of collective action such as trust fund, healthcare system, access roads, access to external expertise, community awards, grants, as well as marketing intervention for organic produce.
The non-material community reward although difficult may include, policy changes that ensure a greater control over local natural resources, policy on environment for eco-friendly products, media attention, community awards, capacity building through the transfer of technology, building up of recognition skills and inclusion of traditional knowledge innovations and practice in the school curriculum.
A tall order you may say, but we need to start from somewhere.