The Secretary General of Minimidt Oumar Ali chaired the opening ceremony on Thursday, May 30, 2014 of the national workshop on appropriating legislation related to the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge in Cameroon. A meeting of experts, stakeholders, and students coming together to develop a consensus approach to understanding the legislation on the matter.
This is the purpose of this workshop that brought together experts, researchers, students, and stakeholders at the Yaoundé Chamber of Commerce and Industries, focusing on the common theme of understanding legislation. Two presentations were given, the first one on "the legal framework of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and the functioning of the APA mechanism in Cameroon" by Dr. DINGOM Aurélie Taylor from Minepded. The second presentation was on "the OAPI model laws and the intellectual property issues in the exploitation of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge" by Fabrice TANGKO, an intellectual property expert from Minmidt.
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Oumar ALI, SG Minmidt
«We organized this workshop with the support of OAPI (African Intellectual Property Organization) to enable our researchers, traditional healers, mothers, and indeed our entire population and all communities to benefit from existing intellectual property and genetic resources protection. As you know, Minmidt has been working for several years on the valorization of our resources. We started with geographical indications, and you know the international success of Penja pepper today. This helps to protect this heritage, and Penja farmers benefit greatly from the significant revenues generated through this intellectual property work. We can also mention Cameroon's Red Cocoa, also registered in geographical indications, which now allows our farmers to benefit from very significant revenues, as you know with the rise in prices of Made in Cameroon cocoa. Today, we continue this action with genetic resources because laws exist; internationally, WIPO, OAPI, and many provisions exist in favor of genetic resources protection. The objective of today's workshop is indeed to make available to all experts, researchers, traditional healers, and all those who work daily to valorize our natural resources, plants, and everything you know to help them benefit from significant revenues from their activities. At the same time, we share with the populations, the custodians of tradition who can now be valued; we help them to value these assets, this heritage through legislation and intellectual property. ».
Fabrice TONGKO, Intellectual property expert at Minmidt
« Today's workshop focuses on the appropriation of national and international legislation regarding genetic resources in Cameroon. As you may know, very recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization has adopted a treaty on intellectual property concerning genetic resources. However, long before that, the African Intellectual Property Organization had enacted a law on the matter, and since 2021, Cameroon has had a law governing access to and sharing of benefits from genetic resources exploitation, with an implementing decree. This indicates that legislation regarding genetic resources in Cameroon is nearly comprehensive. This workshop aims to share and exchange with stakeholders because genetic resources are a highly cross-cutting theme involving several ministerial departments and various actors. Therefore, the workshop has brought together all these stakeholders, including students of organic chemistry, medicine, and researchers in biochemistry, to participate in this workshop. ».
Clément Noumsi
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