Rights to the Benefits of Research: Compensating Indigenous Peoples for their Intellectual Contribution

Research on indigenous knowledge has resulted in innumerable benefits to the Outsider(s). Indigenous peoples should be compensated in return. This article argues for integrating compensation and empowerment into the heart of the research process itself rather than viewing them as post-project undertakings. "Rights to the Benefits of Research" (RBR) is proposed as a unifying term to coalesce ideas of compensation for benefits to the Outsider(s) obtained from a noncommercial research process. In contrast, compensation of indigenous peoples via "Intellectual Property Rights" (IPR) is seen as predicated primarily upon commercial benefits. A strategy to implement RBR based on ethical guidelines and indigenous peoples' empowerment is suggested. A participatory ethnobotanical research project conducted in Ecuador serves to illustrate benefits for which compensation would fall under RBR but not IPR. The project involved the local communities in documenting their oral knowledge of medicinal plants in a written form, primarily for themselves. It is assessed along extractive, compensatory, and empowering tendencies through post-project self-reflection. The article posits that the conservation of indigenous knowledge for and by the local peoples could have positive implications for protecting their intellectual property from predations by the Outsider(s).