Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit Sharing

Edited by Chidi Oguamanam, University of Ottawa

(Cambridge University Press 2018), Open Access – Available Here 

When the oral history of a medicinal plant as a genetic resource is used to develop a blockbuster drug, how is the contribution of indigenous peoples recognized in research and commercialization? What other ethical, legal, and policy issues come into play? Is it accurate for countries to self-identify as users or providers of genetic resources? This edited collection, which focuses on Canada, is the result of research conducted in partnership with indigenous peoples in that country, where melting permafrost and new sea lanes have opened the region’s biodiversity, underscoring Canada’s status as a user and provider of genetic resources and associated indigenous knowledge. This work is an important resource for scholars, corporations, indigenous peoples, policymakers, and concerned citizens as Canada and other countries take on the implementation of Access and Benefit Sharing policies over genetic resources and associated indigenous knowledge. This book is also available as Open Access.

Part I The Evolution of the ABS Policy Landscape in Canada

1. The ABS Canada Initiative: Scoping and Gauging Indigenous Responses to ABS

Chidi Oguamanam

2. Canada and the Nagoya Protocol: Towards Implementation, In Support of Reconciliation

Timothy J. Hodges and Jock R. Langford

3. Aboriginal Partnership, Capacity Building and Capacity Development on ABS: The Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Council (MAPC) and ABS Canada Experience

Chidi Oguamanam and Roger Hunka

Part II Hurdles to ABS: Conceptual Questions, Practical Responses and Paths Forward

4. Unsettling Canada’s Colonial Constitution: A Response to the Question of Domestic Law and the Creation of an Access and Benefit-Sharing Regime

Joshua Nichols

5. Making Room for the Nagoya Protocol in Nunavut

Daniel W. Dylan

6. Implications of the Evolution of Canada’s Three Orders of Government for ABS Implementation

Frédéric Perron-Welch and Chidi Oguamanam

7. Biopiracy Flashpoints and Increasing Tensions over ABS in Canada

Chidi Oguamanam and Christopher Koziol

8. Applying Dene Law to Genetic Resources Access and Knowledge Issues

Larry Chartrand

9. Access and Benefit-Sharing in Canada: Glimpses from the National Experiences of Brazil, Namibia and Australia to Inform Indigenous-Sensitive Policy

Freedom-Kai Phillips

Part III New Technological Dynamics and Research Ethics: Implications for ABS Governance

10. Access and Benefit-Sharing in the Age of Digital Biology

Peter W. B. Phillips, Stuart J. Smyth and Jeremy de Beer

11. ABS: Big Data, Data Sovereignty and Digitization: A New Indigenous Research Landscape

Chidi Oguamanam

12. Ethical Guidance for Access and Benefit-Sharing: Implications for Reconciliation

Kelly Bannister

13. Mapping the Patterns of Underestimated Researcher-Indigenous Collaboration: Towards Independent Implementation of ABS Principles

Thomas Burelli

14. ABS, Reconciliation and Opportunity

Chidi Oguamanam