Photo：Guenay Ulutuncok

Photo：Li Qingsong

What is traditional knowledge？

This term “traditional knowledge” encompasses the knowledge，innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles that are of importance for the preservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. This knowledge，which has been developed over the centuries，is a collective asset of the local communities；it is passed on from generation to generation in such forms as stories，songs，cultural values，traditional laws，local languages，rituals，medical lore and agricultural practices.

Indigenous people and traditional local communities often have a profound understanding of their environment and its ecology. They know numerous ways of using wild plants and animals，for example as food，medicine and dyes. Different cultivation techniques have been developed for a large number of useful plants. This knowledge is an important foundation for the conservation and sustainable use of global biodiversity.

There are close links between cultural and biological diversity. Indigenous peoples suffer from the destruction of the environments in which they live，from being uprooted or displaced and from losing their identity；as a result there is a threat that this great wealth of traditional knowledge will be lost to these peoples themselves and humanity as a whole. At the UN Conference for Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 there was for the first time broad recognition of traditional knowledge. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity（CBD）contracting parties have pledged to recognise and promote traditional knowledge and to make it available for general use. Access to traditional knowledge must be based on the cons