Traditional Knowledge
Globalization has been a double-edge sword for Indigenous Peoples. It is no surprise that the Traditional Knowledge of these original communities has been appropriated and usurped by multinational pharmaceutical and other large corporations over the years.
Proyecto ACCESO has also long worked to empower the indigenous peoples of Latin America, by developing indigenous legal defense programs and creating community dispute resolution through a legal clinic in Temuco, through training of the Mapuche unit at the Defensoria Penal Publica in Araucania, and a communitarian law project that resulted in a new law in Bolivia to expand traditional justice mechanisms including those from the Guarani, Aymara, and Quechua.
Traditional Knowledge refers to the conservation of native sciences, medicine, folklore, artistry and biological diversity within an indigenous culture. This project comprises of multiple components: archiving, publicizing, and promoting the various successes in this emerging arena. All of these are aimed to empower indigenous people and educate the general public. This project is an engine to create an international convention on traditional knowledge, something that the international community has yet to meaningfully address.
We must find new mechanisms to protect the Intellectual Property rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure that they can meaningfully participate in the global marketplace. ACCESO Indígena is looking for partners to explore ways in which to do this.
Climate Change
In addition to issues of land return, Traditional Knowledge (collective IP rights), and Community Law, one of the issues most affecting Indigenous communities involves climate change. While the Indigenous Peoples of our globe have not benefitted from industrialization, the collateral damage to the environment has been devastating to many of their communities.
With rising tides, warmer temperatures and water shortages, traditional ways of life are at risk of extinction. Claes Andreasson, the late Swedish journalist and former morning man on Swedish national television, investigated how global climate change has disrupted the Americas and Indigenous communities in particular.
Eco ACCESO engages in public discourse on trade and development, monitors treaty compliance, gathers evidence, and educates the public about environmental protection and how to best enforce green/legal practices.
We are offering innovative solutions involving original communities, local authorities, national governments, and international institutions. We do so with respect for biodiversity, traditional knowledge, sustainable development and other usos y costumbres.
We help ensure that the supply chain for the goods we consume conforms to international standards for labor, environment and human rights protections. Eco ACCESO builds our legal capacity to protect the environment.
