The San-Hoodia Case

Editors Roger Chennells, Rachel Wynberg and Doris Schroeder

For centuries, the indigenous San people of southern Africa have used species of Hoodia, a local succulent plant, to stave off hunger and thirst on long hunting trips. Now it is being hailed as a miracle cure for obesity, resulting in benefit-sharing agreements between the San and the natural products industry – among the most significant ever negotiated in this sector. The EEU engaged in a two-year collaborative project about the case with the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom.

The so-called San-!Khoba project, funded by the prestigious Wellcome Trust, provides an in-depth analysis of community consent and decision-making; institutional arrangements for benefit-sharing; San perceptions towards intellectual property rights and commodification; and the constraints imposed by serious poverty and the remoteness of the San. The Hoodia case is compared with experiences in India, the Philippines and Mexico. The results represent a unique and comprehensive analysis of decision-making in benefit sharing and feed directly into the international debate. In addition, the project links with the policy-making communities of the countries involved, who are currently devising national policies and laws on access to genetic resources, the protection of traditional knowledge, and benefit sharing.

The main output of the project is a book, published by Springer-Verlag (Berlin) in 2009 - Wynberg, R., Chennells, R., and Schroeder, D. (editors). Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Benefit-sharing. Learning from the San-Hoodia Case. Find out more about the book on the Springer site.

Please contact Fahdelah Hartley at 021 650 2866 or email fahdelah.hartley@uct.ac.za to enquire about ordering copies of the book.