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Northern organizations, governments, and governments-in-waiting have been formally and informally attempting to incorporate "traditional knowledge" into policy deliberations for some time. A public debate about this practice began in fall 1996, when Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard published criticisms of the Government of the Northwest Territories" (GNWT) Traditional Knowledge Policy and of the requirement that traditional knowledge be incorporated into environmental assessments. Widdowson was at the time a contract employee of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (Howard and Widdowson, 1996). As the controversy developed, she was suspended for one week as punishment for her public criticism of government policy. In the Canadian parliamentary tradition, public servants do not have the right to publicly disagree with the policies they are hired to implement. Employees who find themselves in fundamental disagreement with the decisions of elected officials have two options: they may work from within to bring about a change of policy; or, failing this, they must resign. As private citizens, they may - and should - criticize government policy freely. Widdowson should have resigned before speaking publicly, but at least her action stimulated public discussion of some very important questions (GNWT, 1993; Howard and Widdowson, 1996; Berkes and Henley, 1997; Howard and Widdowson, 1997; Laghi, 1997; Stevenson, 1997). The GNWT has adopted what is probably the first formal traditional knowledge policy in Canada, in an attempt to improve democratic representation in the North by moving the policies and practices of territorial government closer to reflecting the values and needs of all northern residents. The Traditional Knowledge Policy is only one aspect of this endeavour, but it is a potentially far-reaching one that deserves intelligent discussion and debate. .

In the interest of responsible agency service, the skilled caseworker interested in sustained therapy must be given sanction to offer such services

There is growing interest in documenting the wealth of traditional knowledge (TK) that has been developed by indigenous peoples and local communities around the world. But documenting TK can raise important issues, especially as regards intellectual property. This Toolkit presents a range of easy-to-use checklists and other resources to help ensure that anyone considering a documentation project can address those issues effectively.

This paper is devoted to the analysis of possible options to ensure the protection of traditional knowledge through existing laws and legal systems in the field of intellectual property. For this purpose, the common problems that indigenous peoples and local communities face, when trying to ensure the protection of their traditional knowledge with the help of intellectual property law tools, are addressed. Separately, the possibility of using copyright, patents, industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, legislation on trade secrets and unfair competition are analyzed in detail. Examples are given for the implementation of traditional knowledge protection through intellectual property rights at the national level in selected countries, such as Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Considerable attention is paid to the interpretation of the provisions of existing international legal acts in the field of intellectual property, in particular, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as well as the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It is concluded that traditional intellectual property regimes do not provide adequate protection for traditional knowledge since contractual intellectual property rights are based on the concepts of an individual property.

Tracking Change… is a new research initiative funded by the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and led by the University of Alberta, the Traditional Knowledge Steering Committee of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, the Government of the Northwest Territories and many other valued partner organizations. Over six years (2015-2022), the project will fund local and traditional knowledge research activities in the Mackenzie River basin and sister projects in the Lower Amazon and Lower Mekong River Basins, with the long term goal of strengthening the voices of subsistence fishers and Indigenous communities in the governance of major fresh water ecosystems. The project developed in recognition that river systems are important social, economic, cultural and ecological places that contribute to the well-being of communities in diverse ways. River peoples, particularly Indigenous peoples who have well developed fishing livelihoods can offer extremely valuable insights about long term (historic and current) patterns of social and ecological change and the interconnections between the health and dynamics of these river systems and that of river communities. Although based on oral traditions, this system of observation or "tracking change" is much like monitoring. Like those who live on Canada's east and west coasts, the ability of Indigenous communities in the Mackenzie River Basin to maintain fishing as a livelihood practice is of social, economic and cultural importance to all of Canada; if this river system is not healthy, how can we be?

In this study I examined examples of implementation of conservation policies initiated by the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). I focused on the 101 conservation initiatives conducted during the period of 2002-2012 on the territories of groups classified by the international law as indigenous peoples. I assessed a degree to which conservation benefited indigenous communities as means to combat poverty and ecological degradation. I focused on the connections between the provisions of the CBD Article 8(j) that specified the importance of protecting indigenous and local communities' traditional knowledge and practices (TK) to conservation, and the actual realities of conservation initiatives in which indigenous expertise was used. I learned that despite the wide use of elements composing TK in the projects examined, only certain communities benefited from the conservation initiatives, with a predominant part of beneficiaries located in the states that insured greater degree of legal and social protection to indigenous individuals as citizens of those states. For the most part conservation was imposed upon indigenous groups; some communities suffered displacement and poverty loosing the lands and resources to the conservation authorities. At the same time in other cases conservation projects offered an opportunity for indigenous individuals to advance their perspectives on managing traditional lands and natural environments and thus, to some degree, advanced underlining these groups' interests. I concluded that collaborative work between indigenous groups and the outside agencies remains the key means toward improving the indigenous economies and relations with external actors while also serving as a means to care for the environment across geo-political boundaries.

Contributed articles in the Indian context