236 Leslé Jansen and Rayna Sutherland
of knowledge on traditional uses of plants, animals and other resources is, as
the community expresses, “vital to maintaining [their] heritage for future
generations” (ibid., p. 18). In addition to these internal community benefits of
the BCP process, it is also an outward articulation of how the Khoikhoi communities are organised for the purposes of FPIC and ABS in relation to Rooibos. The Khoikhoi communities self-determined and expressed who they are
and their current organisation, aims and priorities in the post-apartheid era. In
self-determining their identity, their customary Indigenous resources (as set out
in their Cultural Biodiversity Register), their intellectual property rights related
to Rooibos and its commercialisation, and their terms of consensual engagement,
the communities are able to assert their rights in all such regards. Therefore, the
BPC “provides an interface between [their] communities that want to engage in
ABS (including current and future intellectual property rights), and the ethical
users of [their] traditional knowledge” (ibid., p. 18).
Importantly, the BCP is also a resource for the communities as TK rights
holders and beneficiaries of the Rooibos industry ABS agreement. The BCP
outlines how the Khoikhoi Peoples Rooibos and Biodiversity Trust operates as
a governance structure in the form of an NPO in public interest. The distinct
purpose of the trust is to “utilize the capital and income paid into the Trust
Fund to support and benefit the Beneficiaries (Khoikhoi peoples inclusive of the
Cederberg Indigenous farming communities)” (ibid., p. 90). The BCP outlines
the representative membership of the Board of Trustees, its duty to host Annual
General Meetings of which any beneficiary community is welcome, the aims,
objectives and protocol by which to distribute funds, and annual reporting processes. Most importantly, the BCP clearly explains through text and diagrams, in
both English and Afrikaans, how benefit-sharing works in the case of Rooibos
and how community beneficiaries may access their benefits. In this way, in seeking to meet its objective of uniting and serving Khoikhoi and San communities,
to both affirm and protect their rights inclusive of due benefits to uses of their
TK, the BCP is able to do so accessibly. This is a critical success, given the challenges of uniting communities who have experienced a deep disruption to their
culture and community cohesion in light of apartheid legacies of the “Coloured”
classification and layers of dispossession.
Analysis
The damage left by apartheid and colonialism remains something that cannot
be calculated or sufficiently articulated on paper. The documented wealth the
Khoikhoi communities owned with the advent of colonialism, reflected in
modern- day economics, would have equated to extreme wealth. The present
reality of these landless TK holders, however, is a stark contrast. Many of these
communities live on what is, today, called the Cape Flats, a wetland alongside Table Mountain, a World Heritage Site (called Hoerikwagga in their
Khoekhoegoewab language). One sees nearly no material or physical semblances
of knowledge on traditional uses of plants, animals and other resources is, as
the community expresses, “vital to maintaining [their] heritage for future
generations” (ibid., p. 18). In addition to these internal community benefits of
the BCP process, it is also an outward articulation of how the Khoikhoi communities are organised for the purposes of FPIC and ABS in relation to Rooibos. The Khoikhoi communities self-determined and expressed who they are
and their current organisation, aims and priorities in the post-apartheid era. In
self-determining their identity, their customary Indigenous resources (as set out
in their Cultural Biodiversity Register), their intellectual property rights related
to Rooibos and its commercialisation, and their terms of consensual engagement,
the communities are able to assert their rights in all such regards. Therefore, the
BPC “provides an interface between [their] communities that want to engage in
ABS (including current and future intellectual property rights), and the ethical
users of [their] traditional knowledge” (ibid., p. 18).
Importantly, the BCP is also a resource for the communities as TK rights
holders and beneficiaries of the Rooibos industry ABS agreement. The BCP
outlines how the Khoikhoi Peoples Rooibos and Biodiversity Trust operates as
a governance structure in the form of an NPO in public interest. The distinct
purpose of the trust is to “utilize the capital and income paid into the Trust
Fund to support and benefit the Beneficiaries (Khoikhoi peoples inclusive of the
Cederberg Indigenous farming communities)” (ibid., p. 90). The BCP outlines
the representative membership of the Board of Trustees, its duty to host Annual
General Meetings of which any beneficiary community is welcome, the aims,
objectives and protocol by which to distribute funds, and annual reporting processes. Most importantly, the BCP clearly explains through text and diagrams, in
both English and Afrikaans, how benefit-sharing works in the case of Rooibos
and how community beneficiaries may access their benefits. In this way, in seeking to meet its objective of uniting and serving Khoikhoi and San communities,
to both affirm and protect their rights inclusive of due benefits to uses of their
TK, the BCP is able to do so accessibly. This is a critical success, given the challenges of uniting communities who have experienced a deep disruption to their
culture and community cohesion in light of apartheid legacies of the “Coloured”
classification and layers of dispossession.
Analysis
The damage left by apartheid and colonialism remains something that cannot
be calculated or sufficiently articulated on paper. The documented wealth the
Khoikhoi communities owned with the advent of colonialism, reflected in
modern- day economics, would have equated to extreme wealth. The present
reality of these landless TK holders, however, is a stark contrast. Many of these
communities live on what is, today, called the Cape Flats, a wetland alongside Table Mountain, a World Heritage Site (called Hoerikwagga in their
Khoekhoegoewab language). One sees nearly no material or physical semblances