Nepal’s location in the centre of the Himalayan range places the country in the transitional zone between western and eastern Himalaya. Nepal is rich in both biological and cultural diversity. Although the country represents only 0.1% of the world’s land area, it supports a comparatively high percentage of earth biodiversity. Nepal stands 31st in the world biodiversity position.
Within these extreme variations, medicinal and aromatic plants preserve specific qualities and effectiveness and peoples are using these herbs since antiquity. There are more than 60 ethnic groups; peoples are having the long tradition of using natural resources (as medicines or economic resources) with their own experiential knowledge and they have symbiotic relation with their biodiversity. There are more than 400,000 of such knowledge holders. They are using more than 35000 medicinal and aromatic plants in diverse health conditions (as a health promotive, disease preventive and cure of diseases, and as a food supplements) and their livelihood. More than 4500 codified manuscripts (some of them are only in Nepal) and huge tradition of non-codified tradition of medical knowledge.
The principles of WTO are to develop trading system “without discrimination” “freer”, “predictable”, “more competitive” and “more beneficial for less developed countries (LDCs)”. Least developed countries are benefited in the sense that, they have adequate time to adjust, greater flexibilities and special privileges.
There are several provisions in five WTO agreements[1] that are in favor of developing countries and the country has potentialities to be benefited.
However, LDCs are always exploited. The country cannot benefit from its status as a WTO member unless its products meet international standard. Under the new regulations, financially strong and technically powerful multinational companies can enter the country without any hindrance. But local products, which don’t meet WTO standard, can neither compete with international products nor enter the international markets.
Liberalization and globalization pose great challenges to Ayurvedic industries. First, there is the challenge of survival, originality, resources and method of application of indigenous knowledge, and secondly, the challenges of adaptation of scientific and technological advances for quality production to penetrate international markets.
Nepal has signed Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) on 1992 and became a party ofCBDon 1994. And Nepal is also the signatory of WTO 2004. The legal regimes of WTO, TRIPS andIPRare to ensure the innovators’ rights, commercialization of such innovation with proper scientific interventions and want to provide the guarantee to the user. So, protecting Traditional Medicine Knowledge (TMK), innovations and practices is must to the country like Nepal. Protection ofTMKis a necessary but not sufficient requirement for its preservation and further development. Nepal to harnessTMKfor development and trade, need a firmed national commitment, policy and priority, (which is lacking within the Ministry of Health and Population) and also need assistance to built national capacities in terms of raising awareness on the importance and potential ofTMKfor development and trade; developing institutional and consultative mechanisms onTMKprotection andTMK-based innovation; and facilitating the identification and marketing ofTMK-based products and services.
There is also a need to promote and exchange of experience among developing countries (like Traditional Knowledge Digital Library system from India, national registration or documentation and bio prospecting researches) on national strategies forTMKdevelopment, sui generic system for the development ofTMKand the commercialization ofTMK-based products and services, specially within the ministry of Health and Population, government of Nepal.
Lacking of minimum and proper system or mechanisms at least within the ministry of health and population it is early to assess the visible impacts. It is being already late and strong indications are coming and country is becoming extremely weak to protect and commercialization ofTMKbased products and services. So there is an urgent need to develop strong mechanisms to protect local knowledge and resources from piracy and patent by others.
(From the page ‘country monographs on traditional medicine systems in Nepal‘ that was prepared by Dr Koirala, and significantly supported by Bhupendra Nirajan Khaniya/2007)
