Sustainable Development through the Prism of Indigenous Knowledge: A Revisit to Intellectual Property Rights Issues during COVID Pandemic

Abstract

Traditional notions of sustainable development have strong inter-generational considerations striving for sustainable utilization of resources. The sustainable development and intellectual property rights though traditionally have different areas of operation but the nexus between the two in contemporary world is extremely interesting to study. The existence of rich biodiversity on this earth is the greatest gift from God to mankind and the maintenance of the same for a better future is the collective responsibility of world community. The indigenous communities inhabiting the biodiversity rich areas, owing to their close association with nature plays remarkable role in conserving the environment and maintaining the ecological balances through indigenous knowledge. With the advent of biotechnology, biopiracy and commercial exploitation of such indigenous knowledge for economic gains have become rampant affecting adversely not only the very indigenous community but also certainly hampering the sustainable development goals. This paper shall be an attempt to (i) view sustainable development through the prism of indigenous knowledge and the related intellectual property rights concerns (ii) examine the IPR issues in the contemporary pandemic period and (iii) analyse the resilience of indigenous people in COVID-19 crisis and the lessons therefrom.

Keywords: Traditional Knowledge, Biopiracy, Pandemic, IPR, Sustainable development

JEL Classification: O34, K30, K22