The first meeting of the health ministers from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region ended here last week with a decision to develop a regional-level digital library on the traditional systems of medicine. The intention was to document the traditional knowledge (TK) of the region and thereby protect it from "piracy" for the benefit of the people of the region.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), through its Inter-Governmental Committee, has also been engaged in Intensive discussion on various aspects relating to both the policy as well as appropriate documentation to safeguard the interests of holders of such indigenous knowledge.

The SAARC region which includes countries like Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and India is itself abounding in traditional knowledge of various varieties which also impinges on aspects of bio-technology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, patenting, etc. In view of the importance of the subject, SAARC region has been holding various annual consultations/meetings among themselves in order to suggest various pathways.

The latest of the series of meetings, which took place days after the announcement of the health ministers, has attempted to develop principles and practical guidelines, including technical standards, for the documentation and protection of TK and associated genetic resources. The meeting was pursuant to a recommendation made by the SAARC Forum for Intellectual Property in this regard.

The Expert Workshop on Intellectual Property, TK and Genetic Resources, held in collaboration with WIPO also had two working groups dealing on a practical level with specific issues on the documentation and re-invention of the TK and genetic resources. The meeting also discussed on a host of legal, technical and policy developments relating to the objective of the Workshop.

The workshop highlighted the contribution of TK to the medical and healthcare. It noted that nearly 70 to 80 % of the population in SAARC region bank on traditional medicines for their primary healthcare.

In her inaugural address, Kumar Banal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) pointed out that "bio-prospecting helps the scientists in the modern pharmaceutical research laboratories to get the know how to develop new products or find new uses of existing products."

She felt that the new millennium poses serious challenges to the international legal community to set new international legal standards for tackling the problems of intellectual property protection thrown open by the technological developments.

Representatives from the SAARC countries expressed an urgent need to modernize the intellectual property of the region besides modernizing system, training manpower, eliminate backlog in disposal of IPR applications and develop skills and expertise in emerging areas of technologies.

In fact, a taskforce on SAARC TK had included aired, idea, inane, naturopathy and yoga among the areas to be covered under TK. The workshop gave the experts a platform for developing principles, practical guidelines and technical standards for the documentation and protection of TK.

Addressing the expert group, N K Sahara, director WIPO, Geneva, said that the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) developed by India has attracted international attention. A wider application of such skills will be of much help to the region, he said. The SAARC approach on developing individual capacities, mutual recognition and co-operation can facilitate cooperation at the international level, he added.

The development of a legal framework for the protection and appropriate utilization of TK can help SAARC nations catch up with the development made by other developing countries. SAARC is capable of developing a workable framework for documentation and protection of TK due to its richness in TK, he said.

The two-day workshop has come out with draft of general principles and practical models for protection of TK, policy options, institutional arrangements for SAARC, practical guidelines for registries and documentation for positive protection and possible standards and structures for documentation and inventories within SAARC.