In traditional communities, the knowledge and resources cannot be owned individually. These are communally held. In the case of specialized knowledge, these are held by certain individuals or families who pass it on to their progenies from generation to generation. Some are held by specialists such as shamans or medicine men or women. The practitioners of this knowledge are expected to hold this knowledge on behalf of the community in trust to be used for the welfare of the communities. These are not to be privatized or commoditized.

The issue of commercialization by making the knowledge and its products tradable as a commodity has been intensely debated. One of the arguments that have emerged is that in the event of such commercialization, it is necessary that this has the prior informed consent of the holders of this knowledge and that a share in the economic benefits or profits should flow back to the community which developed this knowledge. However, these are yet to be firmly incorporated into national laws though international acknowledgment of the principles has been made.

Acquiring the biological material such as plants, microorganisms and animals or the traditional knowledge on these biological materials without the prior informed consent of those whose traditional knowledge or biodiversity are taken is called biopiracy. Hoodia earned the reputation as an appetite suppressant after this knowledge was discovered with the indigenous San people. The Hoodia extract has been the basis for a number of products in the weight loss market. After the media raised the issue of biopiracy, a share in the royalties is now offered to the San people. There are isolated examples of recognition of similar claims as Arogyapacha in India.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the international instrument that enunciated prior informed consent, and access and benefit sharing as the principles to guide such commercial exploitation of traditional knowledge. CBD became an international instrument of law in 1993. CBD provided for the right of countries to its genetic resource and knowledge to regulate and control them. The bioprospectors who intend to access these resources and knowledge are to obtain prior informed consent. These accesses are to be controlled and regulated by the respective national governments. All the countries have ratified CBD except for Andorra, Brunei, Somalia, Iraq, and United States.

Today’s market offers a lot of remedies for obesity. But among all these, natural remedies, especially the Hoodia Extracts, are safer and more effective to use compared to the chemical treatments.

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