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Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge: Perspectives for a Gift Economy
By Bhanumathi Natarajan
The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demand for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it is affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to
the axeman who destroys it.
-Gauthama Buddha
Introduction
The world around us is surrounded with biodiversity. Biodiversity is the sum of organisms that include plants, animals, microorganisms and the ecosystems they live in (CBD 1998). These natural resources are gifts of nature that are important for humans and for the functioning of ecosystems. The local/indigenous peoples have been custodians of diversity so far. Through an understanding of the natural processes they have been able to use and share the natural resources wisely Gift giving and receiving, however, is thwarted by the exchange value system.
In the dominant exchange system, goods are created for of the market, with the sole objective of bringing profit. Gift giving is considered unnatural unless the resources are processed into goods for the market (Vaughan 1998). Today transnational corporations (TNC`s) are the main actors of the dominant exchange system. They acquire profits by commodifying gifts they receive. These gifts include for instance women's care work, natural resources and traditional knowledge.
Patriarchy has established power structures and created a consumer society; biodiversity is converted into goods for consumption without regard for the environment and the interactions of species within the ecosystems. A degraded environment is the result, and it may further result in endangering the rights of people to their traditional ways i.e. nurturing, respecting, using and protecting the ecosystem. To quote Posey (1999), human beings are an integral part of biodiversity, not merely observers and users of the `components of biodiversity`. For the indigenous and traditional peoples nature is not a commodity to be bought and sold, patented or preserved apart from society, precisely because nature is what defines humanity. The earth is their (our) mother and cannot be compromised, sold or monopolised. Thus there is an inextricable link between nature, society and culture.
In this paper, I will present examples and discuss the importance of the traditional knowledge of biodiversity that local/indigenous peoples possess. New varieties of crops cultivated by local/indigenous women and the knowledge of how to use wild plants that has been acquired for centuries, are gifts that are shared and freely available. The market regards these gifts purely as profit elements to be privatised, whereas the gift aspect is ignored. The danger, however, is that essential biodiversity and traditional knowledge may disappear forever.
The status of biodiversity and traditional knowledge
Nature has provided us with bountiful gifts in the form of biodiversity, with which humans have experimented. Local/indigenous peoples' lives are based on the resources found in their local environment. They have experimented and learnt to use these gifts of nature: for instance plants and animals, as food. Through a keen sense of observation of the ecosystem they have cultivated new varieties of crops. In addition they have also used wild biota in health care. The traditional knowledge has been passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth. This oral tradition is alive even today. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) about 80% of the world's people rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs (Farnsworth 1985). Furthermore, local/indigenous peoples have used fibres for clothing and ropes and wood and leaves for providing shelter and for making boats or canoes.
The manifold use of plants is probably the reason for their veneration by local/indigenous peoples. This can be seen for instance, by the spiritual role that forests play in the lives of these peoples. Their respect for nature has prevented indiscriminate use and secured protection of diversity. Therefore, the reverence for biodiversity by local/indigenous peoples cannot be ignored. The existence of sacred groves in many parts of the world is a living example of the spiritual aspect in the conservation of biodiversity. Thus knowledge of biodiversity and its use are intertwined with traditional, cultural, spiritual practices of a large number of peoples.
Due to the disappearance of biodiversity, local traditions are forgotten and eventually disappearing from communities. Knowledge and biodiversity get further eroded due to industrialisation, modernisation of agriculture, such as monoculture cultivation, pollution, and migration of people to cities, due to war and population pressures. Wilson (1988) and Lovejoy (1992) estimate that there are somewhere between 30 and 100 million species on earth. This diversity is being lost at the rate of 27,000 species each year, 74 each day or 3 each hour (Wilson 1992).
Development projects such as dam construction, mining and cash crop cultivation have resulted in people moving away from rural areas. This not only results in loss of income for local people but also a loss of healthy diets based on local diversity. So traditional crops are either lost or not cultivated, and this has led to malnourishment of the local people, especially the children.
Agrobiodiversity
Several varieties of crops have been and are cultivated and maintained by local/indigenous peoples. Their knowledge of the local gene pool is a gift to all, and forms the base for new varieties. For example, potatoes cultivated by the peoples of the Andes for thousands of years form the base for new varieties cultivated today. (Ugent 1970). The Cochabamba people of the Andes have maintained 70 varieties of potato. Some single families maintained up to 31 varieties. Women play a very important role in cultivation. They are involved in seed selection, production, harvest, storage, processing, and last but not the least cooking (GRAIN 2000). Arawakan women of the Guainia-Negro region of the Venezuelan Amazon cultivate more than 70 varieties of bitter manioc (Hoffmann 2003). In one of the many villages of Liberia, Kpelle women maintained 112 varieties of rice (Thomasson 1991).
Besides crop species a large number of wild plants including seasonal vegetables and fruits form part of the diets of local/indigenous peoples. In Kenya a considerable amount of wild biodiversity is used by women during the rainy season for food, medicine and other products. In Bangladesh stagnation of water is common during the monsoons. Women collect seeds of jack fruit, fry them and keep them ready before the onset of the monsoon, as it may be difficult to prepare elaborate meals due to water logging. The seeds are stored in pots and hung outside their dwellings to prevent them from being damaged by water. Local people have cultivated crops for their nutrition value and for their taste too. Several other crops, legumes, tropical fruits, and other wild species form part of nutritious diet in a small area. Of course the art of preserving and pickling based on local biodiversity are well known to women.
Women are also involved in cultivating vegetables, greens and other herbs in kitchen or home gardens. These home gardens also harbour many indigenous varieties that are very often taken care of by women. In rural Bangladesh for example, women select seeds of vine and gourd species, chiefly indigenous varieties that are to be grown the following year (Wilson 2003).
Medicinal diversity
Local/indigenous peoples also use a wide variety of local biodiversity for medicinal purposes. Samoan women healers use about 100 different plant species, and an antiviral drug prostratin from the plant Holmanthus nutans, was discovered after verifying traditional claims (Cox, 1995, Cox 2000). In India indigenous women from the then State of Madhya Pradesh use a combination of plants as birth control agents (Citizen's Report 1982). A medicinal plant Pelargonium reniforme that grows wild and is endemic to Eastern Cape of South Africa is used by the Khoi/San descendents and Xhosa traditional healers against stomach ailments, dysentery and blood in stools (Limson 2002). All these plants come from the tropics and have been used by indigenous people. 74% of the 119 chemical substances extracted from higher plants that are used in medicine have the same or related uses and have been used by the local/indigenous populations or in ethnomedicine (Farnsworth 1988). Tropical plants are used as direct therapeutic agents. They are among others, sources of information for deriving new synthetic constituents and for the discovery of novel compounds (Oldfield 1984) Qunine and quinidine are only two chemical compounds extracted from the bark of cinchona tree (Cinchona officinalis), and are used as anti-malarial drugs and in the treatment for cardiac arrhythmia, respectively. There are many other chemical compounds that are used for various health conditions. It is estimated that two-thirds of 35,000 species of plants in the tropics have medicinal value.
Socio-cultural or spiritual aspects
Sustainable use and protection of biodiversity can be seen in various cultural practices. Religious legitimation is also given to plants and animals. As a means of sharing biodiversity one can see hunting in specially protected areas in local communities, where animals and birds are captured during festivals and the meat shared.In other places game meat is used to celebrate the dead. Special areas are allotted for hunting game meat for such occasions.
In India and Sri Lanka, some of the richest sites of medicinal plants are the sacred groves that are scattered throughout the country. They are a concept and practice of in-situ conservation and protection of biodiversity. In Sri Lanka they are under the care of the Buddhist monasteries and in South India under the care of various deities. Sacred groves in India such as the aurans of Rajasthan, devaranyas (God`s groves) of the Western Ghats, nagaranya (serpent`s groves) and kavus of Kerala are also symbols of the maintenance of diversity. These are traditional mechanisms of management and protection of diversity. Sacred groves are a feature across different continents too. Today, these are protected by the local people, who only at times are allowed to go and get medicinal plants for their own treatment of ailments. The groves have stood the test of time due to socio-cultural traditions. These reserves are a "local insurance"- not being taken care of by governments but by the people themselves who use them.
Even in temples and homes in cities, plants and leaves are used for religious purposes and during festivals. According to Ghate (1998) at least 45 species used in different religious ceremonies from Pune city have been enumerated. These species are both cultivated and available as wild plants. Many grow as weeds and are easily available and many are rare and not easily available. These plants provide economic benefits as fruit trees, or ornamentals or are used as medicine locally. Thus the spiritual aspects show us that there is more than the utility value of a genetic resource. These species are used in a sustainable manner and protected as well.
The spiritual aspects also include the celebration of diversity by local/indigenous peoples. Harvest festivals and local fairs are some of the ways through which diversity is celebrated and knowledge of biodiversity is shared with others. Sharing of biodiversity not only enhances the diversity of the gene pool but also the knowledge of these through communication. This strengthens the cultural and traditional base of local/indigenous peoples' practices related to farming and the use of biodiversity as medicine. The relationship that local/indigenous peoples have built up with their local ecosystems enhances the gifts of nature, both in the form of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. It is through such interaction and understanding of interconnectedness that they have been and still are able to protect and make sustainable use of diversity. These elements are lost in the exchange system, which leads to the alienation of nature and people, and the regard for the resources is lost.
Commodification of the skills of traditional knowledge
In the free market society nature's gifts are converted into commodities by the market for its use in the accumulation of profits. Traditional varieties of crops and knowledge of biodiversity have been increasingly commodified in the past couple of decades and have benefitted the countries of the North. For example, a wild tomato variety was estimated to be worth ca. $ 8 million dollars a year to the U.S. (Iltis 1988). An Ethiopian barley gene protects crops in California from lethal dwarf virus and is worth $150 million in the U.S. (RAFI 1994). Many of the crops have been selected and cultivated by local/indigenous peoples. When it comes to medicinal plants, the rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) has been used by local/indigenous peoples as an oral hypoglycaemic agent. The most useful alkaloids isolated from this plant are used to treat childhood leukaemia and Hodgkin`s disease in modern medicine. The market sales in 1980 were in the range of $ 100 million (see Plotkin 1991). The value of the pharmaceutical industry has more than quadrupled between 1981 and 2000. The top 10 corporations control 48% of the $317 billion market. When it comes to the seed industry, the top 10 corporations control about 30% of the $24 billion market (ETC 2001, ETC 2003).
Women's free services are gifts that the exchange based economic system needs for profit making. Similarly the biodiversity and traditional knowledge that are available gratis are beneficial for the market. During the colonial times the colonisers cultivated and transferred exotic species for trade and established a market for these. Very often cultivation was based on monocultures. Each colonial power grew plantations from which they could profit most. In Sri Lanka cocoa, coffee, cinchona, quinine, rubber and tea were grown in succession. (Dixon 1990, NRC 1975). Today trade agreements such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have replaced the colonial system, but with the same winners and losers as before.
Biodiversity and traditional knowledge are threatened as a result of privatisation and monopoly rights that corporations want to impose. Patriarchal institutions such as the WTO, which cater to the market's needs, help corporations to take out patent rights on biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Private property rights may endanger the rights of women and local/indigenous peoples in using and sharing their resources as they have done. Biodiversity and traditional knowledge together with the embedded gifts may be lost forever as a result.
TNCs have realised that the use of ethnobotanical tools can give them a quicker and cheaper way of exploiting drugs for their benefit. So the study of ethnobotany is now beginning to be taken up by modern scientists for exploring new chemical substances and for cost effective research. In modern scientific terms ethnobotany is the study of how plants and animals are used by local/indigenous`peoples. It is an interdisciplinary study and includes fields such as botany, zoology, pharmacy, ecology, anthropology, sociology and politics. According to Balick (1985), an ethnobotanical approach would increase the chance of drug discovery by 400 times. Ethnomedical or ethnobotanical approach by Shaman pharmaceuticals has shown to be 125-630 times more efficient in the drug discovery processes when compared to searching for compounds in the wild (Carlson 1998). Many other pharmaceuticals have started to incorporate the local traditional or ethnobotanical knowledge of species in their drug discovery processess. Discussions are taking place as to how people can be compensated for the resources and knowledge they part with, for instance in the case of the discovery of a drug, with no regard being given to the holistic perspective of biodiversity.
Patents on biodiversity and traditional knowledge
Several private and public enterprises and institutions are engaged in collecting, sampling and acquiring biodiversity and traditional knowledge for development of foods, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and other industrial products. But knowledge that comes from industrial countries is well protected by intellectual property rights. For example, article 27 (b) of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement, which comes under the purview of the WTO agreement, allows countries to patent processes and products. Countries that have signed the WTO agreement must adhere to these Intellectual property laws (IPR). The current IPR system does not protect the interests of communities, and ultimately threatens conservation and the further development of biodiversity. It only serves the interests of the corporations. The market does not recognise the gifts that these people have in the form of traditional knowledge, unless the gifts are transformed into commodities that can make money. In fact the gift economy of the local peoples is replaced by a theft economy, the TNCs being a parasite on local biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Patents on basmati, turmeric, jasmine rice, chick peas and Mexican beans are all well known. These patents only serve the corporations and not the local people.
According to Human Development Report (1999) industrialised countries own 97% of the patents, which are in turn owned by TNCs. Citizens of the North own over 80% of the patents granted by the developing countries. Once patented it may be difficult for the local communities to fight the patents as the corporations have enormous resources, both in the form of money and legal personnel. Furthermore, the language used in the agreements is not easy to understand. The indigenous communities may finally lose their control over their resources.
The Western paradigm claims to bring development to the world`s people, especially in the third world, while what we see is an opposite outcome. The models of development as portrayed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and now the WTO are mechanisms created to serve the colonisers, as discussed in the examples above. Countries may have become independent, but in reality the same policies continue.
Women's actions in fostering the gifts (diversity)
In the past decade we have seen women as victims of development and environmental degradation. But what we increasingly realise is that they play a crucial role in the cultivation and the management of diversity. Their contribution to food production is large. In Africa women produce 80% of the food, in Asia 60% and in Latin America 40%. In addition to food production as discussed above women use a number of species to cater to their daily needs, such as wild and domesticated species trees, shrubs, roots, leaves, bark and animals as food and medicines. Thus they rely on a diverse range of species and preserve the same.
The chipko or hug-the-tree movement was staged by women in India to protect the trees in the area, as it is they who realised the importance of the forest. In Kenya the Green Belt Movement mobilised more than 80,000 women to plant trees. Indeed we can see women resisting the destruction of the environment in countries of both the North and the South as it is they who have seen the connections between ecology, health and survival all along.
Biodiversity management in South India clearly shows how tradition and culture are carefully applied in cultivation and protection of diversity. In areas where finger millet is grown women are involved in seed selection and storage. Seed selection starts with the celebration of diversity in the form of performing rituals, and takes place continuously through field observation, which they do when they work. Thus they have keen eyes for selection and perform scientific experiments to choose seeds in their own way. When the crops are harvested a gift of grain is given to those who have helped with the harvest and also shared among the poor. Seed storage also involves rituals. The leaves of Lakki- Vitex negundo or neem are used in seed storage as they have insecticidal properties (Ramprasad 1999). Thus we see the cultivation and the protection of biodiversity where both traditional and spiritual practices play an important role. These connections therefore cannot be separated.
The appreciation of nature's gifts and management initiatives go hand in hand with culture. Natural resources are given respect and treated with dignity. They are also appreciated and shared. These aspects are taught and practiced by women of indigenous societies of Northwest America for sustainable development and to fight consumerism (Turner 1992, Turner and Atleo 1998). As Mahatma Gandhi put it, there is plenty in the world for everyone`s needs but not for everyone`s greed.
Towards a feminist gift perspective
Patriarchal institutions or capitalism have expanded more than ever due to the mantra of globalisastion. It goes beyond privatisation, taking control of biodiversity and knowledge for control of peoples lives, just as colonisation has done in the past 500 years. The current actors of globalisation- the TNCs - claim that they are the bringing culture and prosperity to all peoples, whereas they are the colonizers.
A feminist approach towards a gift economy would be to learn ways and means from local culture and traditions in the use of biodiversity instead of dismissing them as uncivilised ways of doing things. Thereby diversity could be appreciated. Small self-reliant entities, with diverse traditions and cultures would pave the way for respecting diversity. Furthermore, we may be able to understand the vulnerabilities of associating with the global market and the threat this can cause for present as well as future generations. By identifying and continuing traditional practices we can better protect and use biodiversity in a sustainable manner. This may in turn strengthen the diverse bases and lead to protection and the sustainable use of biodiversity. A synthesis of the old and new may further be important for a better management of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. And women can pave the path towards achieving this.
Last but not the least; we are part of a bigger society based on the dominant exchange systems, so our minds are tuned to that way of thinking. A starting point would be for each one of us to start to recognise the gifts we give and receive at an individual level. That may be a step towards understanding the gift aspect embedded in biodiversity. This in turn could foster a society that appreciates gift giving and receiving; in other words it would be a move towards a gift society.
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