Ticuna traditional knowledge on chagra agriculture and innovative mechanisms for its protection

The relationship of indigenous peoples to the global market is a reality and it sets strategies of appropriation of traditional knowledge, without any rule mediating the restitution of rights that knowledge holders have, while indigenous people are asking a sui generis system for protection and equitable participation in these markets. The paper presents the results of a participatory research carried out with Ticuna communities of the south of the Colombian Amazon, in the border with Brazil and Peru, in the upper part of the Amazon River. From the knowledge about the use and management of chagra agriculture, the research analyzes how the productive chain of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is structured. It also explains how indigenous people discuss the intellectual property rights they have on it, and how the geographical indications and the collective trademarks can help to protect traditional knowledge associated to biodiversity.