Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Intellectual Property Rights: an Enabling Tool for Development with Identity

This paper deals with a subset of indigenous knowledge systems called ethnobotanical knowledge. It reports some creative ways in which documentation of ethnobotanical knowledge can be carried out without losing community ownership over intellectual property rights. It also presents the general findings of the documentation, current and future uses of the documented knowledge, and how this knowledge can become an enabling tool for development with a sense of community ownership and self-identity.