On January 21, 17 countries that are home to 60-70% of the Earth's biodiversity (the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries, or LMMC) agreed to the Delhi Declaration of Megadiverse Contries on Access and Benefit Sharing. From the press release of the Indian government: 'The New Delhi Ministerial Declaration of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries on Access and Benefit Sharing, issued here today, at the end of five-day meet of the Megadiverse countries, also stated that the proposed international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS) should include "mandatory disclosure of the country of origin of biological material and associated traditional knowledge in the IPR (Intellectual Property Right) application, along with an undertaking that the prevalent laws and practices of the country of origin have been respected and mandatory specific consequences in the event of failure to disclose the country of origin in the IPR application"....The onus of benefit sharing must also be shared by the user country to create an enabling environment and confidence through legislative measures so as to ensure compliance of PIC [prior informed consent] stipulations and equitable sharing of benefits as visualized in the [Convention on Biological Diversity].' (PS: The Delhi principles focus on sharing genetic resources and money generated from them. It's not clear whether it would increase or decrease access to the associated traditional knowledge.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/01/2005 11:42:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
