Abstract
The purpose of this article is to broadly outline a problem in the context of relatively recent activity in the Amazon Basin. My colleagues and I found the Policy Sciences framework to be a useful blueprint for comprehensive issue analysis. The five intellectual tasks of the policy-oriented approach to solving problems helped us to clarify the apparent goals of the primary actors involved; identify certain trends associated with the problem, including estimations of their magnitude and implications; understand several conditioning factors which could impact (or have already had an impact on) the achievement of the goals identified; recognize several projections anticipated from a normative standpoint in light of the trends examined; and make some observations, including possible strategies and their alternatives, which might enable the Shuar to maximize benefits and minimize costs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Professor Winston Nagan is a policy scientist and Sam T. Dell Professor of Law at the University of Florida College of Law. At the time Nagan led (and as of this writing continues to lead) the culturally and ethnically diverse Institute for Human Rights, Peace and Development at the University of Florida, which has brought international attention to the struggle for indigenous peoples’ human rights. Throughout the Western Hemisphere, the Institute is widely known as a leading advocacy organization for indigenous peoples in Latin America, including the Shuar.
The Shuar word, Karkaram, translates to mean “warrior.”
We were subsequently told that these perspectives, together with certain Shuar artifacts which the delegation themselves helped to identify at the Smithsonian’s Cultural Resources Center, have since been developed into a Shuar exhibition at the NMAI’s satellite museum in New York City.
References
Asebey, E., & Kempenaar, J. (1995). The intellectual property perspective on biodiversity: Biodiversity prospecting: Fulfilling the mandate of the biodiversity convention. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 28, 703.
Balick, M. J., & Cox, P. A. (1996). Plants, people, and culture: The science of ethnobotany. New York: Scientific American Library.
Bierer, D. et al. (2006). Shaman pharmaceuticals: Integrating indigenous knowledge, tropical medicinal plants, medicine, modern science and reciprocity into a novel drug discovery approach. Available at http://www.netsci.org/Science/Special/feature11.html.
Castner, J. L., Timme, S. L., & Duke, J. A. (1988). Field guide to medicinal and useful plants of the Upper Amazon. Gainesville: Feline Press.
Charters, C., Malezer, L., & Tauli-Corpuz, V. (2009). Indigenous voices: The UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart.
Conservation International Online (2008). Biodiversity hotspots: Tropical Andes.
Convention on Biological Diversity (2002). Bonn guidelines on access to genetic resources and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their utilization.
Corntassel, J., & Primaeu, T. (1995). Indigenous ‘Sovereignty’ and international law: Revised strategies for pursuing ‘Self-Determination’. Human Rights Quarterly, 17(2), 343–365.
Duke, J. A., & Vasquez, R. (1994). Amazonian ethnobotanical dictionary. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Farnsworth, N. R., & Loub, W. D. (1983). Information gathering and data bases that are pertinent to the development of plant-derived drugs, in plants: The potentials for extracting protein, medicines, and other useful chemicals, workshop proceedings OTA-BP-F-23. US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Washington, DC, 183.
Farnsworth, N. R., & Soejarto, D. D. (1985). Potential consequences of plant extinction in the United States on the current and future availability of prescription drugs. Economic Botany, 39, 231–240.
Gepts, P. (2004). Who owns biodiversity, and how should the owners be compensated? Plant Physiology, 134, 1295–1307.
Gnerre, M. (1973). Sources of Spanish Jívaro. Romance Philology, 27(2), 203–204.
Hall, G., & Patrinos, H. A. (2006). Indigenous peoples, poverty and human development in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harner, M. J. (1984). The Jívaro: People of the sacred waterfalls. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Johnson, M. (1992). Research on TGKP: Its development and its role, in Lore: Capturing traditional environmental knowledge. Ottawa: IDRC.
Margulies, R. (1993). Protecting biodiversity: recognizing international intellectual property rights in plant genetic resources. Michigan Journal of International Law, 14, 322–356.
Martinez-Cobo, J. (1986). The study of the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations, U.N. ESCOR, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7/Add. 4.
Nagan, W. (2008). The Anthropocene Crisis: Perils and Possibilities of the 21st Century, available at: http://www.worldacademy.org/files/Love,%20Hate%20and%20the%20Human%20Rights%20Boundaries%20of%20the%20Law%20by%20Winston%20Nagan.pdf.
National Cancer Institute. (2006). Drug discovery at the national cancer institute: Fact sheet.
Ñopo, H, Saavedra, J., & Torero, M. (2007). Ethnicity and earnings in a mixed race. Labor market. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 55(4).
Patrinos, H. P. et al. (2007). Indigenous peoples in Latin America: Economic opportunities and social networks. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4227.
Psacharopoulos, G., & Patrinos, H. P. (1994). Indigenous people and poverty in Latin America: An empirical analysis. Washington DC: World Bank.
Puwainchir, M. (2001). The globalization of interculturality. In: Safeguarding traditional cultures: a global assessment (pp. 65–67). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Reynolds, G. H., & Merges, R. P. (1997). Outer space problems of law and policy. Boulder: Westview Press.
Rose, C. M. (1994). Property and persuasion: essays on the history, theory, and rhetoric of ownership. Boulder: Westview Press.
Ross, M. (1993). The management of conflict: Interpretations and interests in comparative perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rural Advancement Foundation International. (1994). Bio-prospecting/biopiracy and indigenous peoples.
Schrijver, N. (1998). Permanent sovereignty over natural resources versus the common heritage of mankind: complementary or contradictory principles of international economic law? In de Waart et al. (Eds.), International Law and Development.
Schultes, R. E., & Raffauf, R. F. (1990). The healing forest, medicinal and toxic plants of the Northwest Amazonia. Portland: Dioscorides Press.
Sellers, M. (Ed.). (1996). The new world order: Sovereignty, human rights, and the self-determination of peoples. Oxford: Berg.
Sen, A. K. (1993). Capability and well-being. In M. Nussbaum & A. K. Sen (Eds.), The quality of life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tauli-Corpuz, V. (2005). Indigenous peoples and the millennium development goals, working paper, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Session 4.
Telles, E. E. (2007). Race and ethnicity and Latin America’s United Nations millennium development goals. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 2(2), 185–200.
The Nature Conservancy, Facts about rainforests. Available at http://www.nature.org/rainforests/explore/facts.html. Accessed 2012.
United Nations Economic and Social Council: Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2006). Fifth session, “Action Program for Second Indigenous Decade Launched”.
van de Walle, D, & Gunewardena, D. (2001). Sources of ethnic inequality in Viet Nam. Journal of Economic Development, 65(1), 177–207.
van den Berghe, P. (1981). The ethnic phenomenon. New York: Elsevier.
Acknowledgments
Craig Hammer would like to acknowledge and thank Amanda Lynch, Winston Nagan, Toddi Steelman, Andy Willard, Christina Cromley Bruner, Susan Iott, Christine Feehan, and Ryan Koslosky.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of The World Bank Group or its Board of Directors.
Craig Hammer, with Juan Carlos Jintiach and Ricardo Tsakimp.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hammer, C., Jintiach, J.C. & Tsakimp, R. Practical developments in law science and policy: efforts to protect the traditional group knowledge and practices of the Shuar, an indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Policy Sci 46, 125–141 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9166-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9166-6