ABS: Big Data, Data Sovereignty and Digitization - A New Indigenous Research Landscape

In Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit Sharing
Chidi Oguamanam, ed.
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 196-211

This chapter focuses on the increasing sophistication of research practices through the applications of digitization and other aspects of information and communication technology (ICT). Multiple factors, including advances in biotechnology and the production, utilization and malleability of valuable research data through the use of digital technology tools have resulted in the transformation of data or genetic information into widely accessible virtual resources that are practically de-linked from their origins. Given the orientation of the Nagoya Protocol towards the physical transfer of genetic resources, the virtualization of Indigenous research data makes the latter part of the big and open data grab threatening the realization of ABS. However, despite the potential to de-link genetic resources (GRs) and associated traditional knowledge (aTK), including other aspects of Indigenous research data from their sources, conceivably, there are significant bases in the texts of CBD and the Nagoya Protocol for the inclusion of digitally sequenced data as part of ABS. Further, the interface of Indigenous peoples and local communities’ (IPLCs) nascent interest in data sovereignty and the big and open data phenomena provide an opportunity to apply critical data analytics to mainstream data equity as an integral aspect of Indigenous-sensitive ABS in an increasingly sophisticated and technology-driven research environment.

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