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UNPROTECTED ROOTS: BRIDGING LEGAL GAPS IN THE PROTECTION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, BIODIVERSITY, AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

"When a tribal elder dies, a library burns down" — this powerful truth captures the irreplaceable value of traditional knowledge that the world continues to lose in silence. Indigenous and tribal communities have been the silent guardians of biodiversity for centuries, preserving thousands of plant species, medicinal knowledge, and sustainable agricultural practices that remain unknown to the modern world. Despite their invaluable contributions to ecological conservation and cultural heritage, these communities continue to exist outside the protective boundaries of existing legal frameworks, leaving their knowledge exposed to exploitation and erasure. The absence of a comprehensive legal mechanism to protect traditional knowledge has created a critical gap between the rights of indigenous communities and the demands of a globalizing world. Conventional intellectual property laws fail to recognize the collective, oral, and intergenerational nature of traditional knowledge, making communities vulnerable to biopiracy and unauthorized commercialization of their cultural resources. This paper adopts a doctrinal and comparative legal research methodology, critically analyzing international instruments including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol, and WIPO-IGC frameworks alongside ground level ethnobotanical evidence from tribal communities. The study reveals significant legal inadequacies in protecting traditional knowledge and identifies the urgent need for a sui generis framework that recognizes indigenous communities as sovereign custodians of their knowledge and biodiversity. Bridging these legal gaps is not merely a legislative necessity — it is a moral imperative. Protecting traditional knowledge directly safeguards cultural identity, ensures equitable benefit sharing, and preserves biodiversity for future generations, ultimately contributing to global ecological and cultural sustainability.

KEYWORDS: Biopiracy, Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya Protocol, WIPO-IGC, Sui Generis