Geographical Indications, Biodiversity and Poor Communities

Geographical Indications, Biodiversity and Poor Communities: The opportunity for geographical indications to provide protection for traditional indigenous biodiversity products and benefits to poor agricultural communities.

Developed countries are rich in biodiversity, and a number of attractive native products are traditionally derived from domesticated and wild plants and animals. In some cases such products have shown potential on domestic and export markets, but incipient quality reputations are at risk from disloyal competition, poor quality management and insufficient understanding how genetic, location-specific and management factors influence product quality.

Geographic Indications (GI) are a tool to overcome some of the limitations faced by traditional products on markets. In particular they can provide protection of native products against the illegitimate use of product labels, and their implementation could bring about considerable benefits for poor agricultural communities.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Crops for the Future (CFF) are committed to assisting Less Developed Countries (LDC) to (i) Identify candidate products for GI protection, (ii) Assess the challenges communities and value chains face in setting up GI quality management systems (iii) Explore legal implications of GI registration that underpin the improvement of national regulatory frameworks on Geographic Indications (GIs).

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Citation
Marie-Vivien, D. and Chabrol, D. 2014. Geographical Indications, Biodiversity and Poor Communities: The opportunity of geographical indications to provide protection of traditional indigenous biodiversity products and benefits to poor agricultural communities. A Desk Study on six target countries: Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Mauritania, commissioned by UNCTAD and CFF. July 2014, 80 p.

The report is a follow-up on a global GI study undertaken by GFU in 2007 (Larson 2007, Relevance of geographical indications and designations of origin for the sustainable use of genetic resources.)