A/HRC/36/53 production. For example, Symbiosis, a fashion company in Costa Rica, melds traditional art forms with innovative marketing to appeal to a global market.8 35. Culture underpins the social infrastructure of indigenous communities and it can help provide a foundation to support business growth if that is a collective decision. Culture can also provide a number of different business opportunities, particularly in the arts and tourism fields, such as music and dance, arts and craft and the traditional food industry, which can be leveraged to meet indigenous peoples’ needs. 36. However, indigenous traditional knowledge systems are susceptible to being commodified and owned and traded as private intellectual property rights. Examples include the misappropriation of traditional knowledge-based genetic resources and products derived from biodiversity-rich ecosystems, for which indigenous peoples often receive little direct benefit. For example, the San people in South Africa contested the use of their traditional knowledge about the plant known as Hoodia, which they have used for centuries to block feelings of hunger, by pharmaceutical companies for medicine including against obesity.9 As a positive example, the Plurinational State of Bolivia has established a registry of collective trademarks of indigenous communities’ handicrafts and textiles. 37. While Western systems emphasize individual intellectual property, indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge is often created and owned collectively, passed down orally, and regulated by customary laws requiring stewardship for the benefit of the community and future generations. As the Expert Mechanism has previously underlined, existing international mechanisms do little to protect traditional indigenous intellectual property, because they focus on protecting the rights of individuals, not collectives (see A/HRC/30/53, para. 58). The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity addresses traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources and provides provisions for fair and equitable benefit-sharing. However, further strengthening protections around indigenous knowledge systems could help reduce the risk of cultural appropriation and ensure that any culturally based business opportunities benefit indigenous peoples. 4. Free, prior and informed consent as a catalyst of safe, viable and inclusive indigenous peoples’ businesses 38. The Declaration guarantees a set of rights that should allow indigenous peoples to do business on their lands safely and viably. To that end, article 29 provides for the protection of the environment and productive capacity of indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources. The article specifically prohibits the storage or disposal of hazardous materials on indigenous peoples’ lands without their free, prior and informed consent. Article 32 underlines the particular role of free, prior and informed consent with regard to the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water and other resources on indigenous peoples’ lands and territories. 39. The principle of free, prior and informed consent has been elaborated upon by numerous human rights experts and mechanisms, including the Expert Mechanism and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. 10 Even in cases where indigenous peoples themselves exploit the resources on their lands, free, prior and informed consent would still be of critical importance to ensure that all sections of communities, including indigenous women, youth and persons with disabilities, participate effectively. Free, prior and informed consent thus reinforces the inclusiveness of indigenous peoples’ business models. 8 9 10 8 Alancay Morales, presentation to the expert seminar on good practices and challenges for indigenous peoples’ entrepreneurship. More information on the case can be found at www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/academy/ en/about/global_network/educational_materials/cs1_hoodia.pdf. See, for example, A/HRC/18/42, A/HRC/21/55 and A/HRC/24/41.