Africa-Press – Botswana. Three villages in the Okavango District will benefit from a pilot project that aims to capacitate communities to patent their genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Briefing the Okavango District Development Committee in Gumare on recently, the natural resources officer from Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) Gaborone, Ms Onalenna Motlogi said piloting would be done in the three villages of Shakawe, Seronga and Shaikarawe in the Okavango before the rollout across the country.
She said the project pioneered by the DEA was part of the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol funded at the tune of P22 million by the Global Environmental Facility and P6 million from Botswana government.
She said the Nagoya Protocol was an international agreement that helped protect genetic resources and traditional knowledge for the monetary and non-monetary benefit of communities.
The project will allow documentation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with some individuals and communities.
It will help Batswana and the country to benefit from their genetic resources and traditional knowledge, she said.
She observed that in the past, lack of such protocol resulted in some genetic resources and traditional knowledge being claimed by foreign countries as their own.
Through the protocol, she said Botswana would benefit from research carried out on genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Natural resources officer from DEA Gaborone, Mr James Gaboiphewe said the project would help strengthen national frameworks and capacitate local institutions in research.
“There is limited information available on the scientific research on species in Botswana and research will lead to development and commercialisation of the product,” he said.
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