Skip to main content

Site navigation

  • University of Technology Sydney home
  • Home

    Home
  • For students

  • For industry

  • Research

Explore

  • Courses
  • Events
  • News
  • Stories
  • People

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Study at UTS

    • arrow_right_alt Find a course
    • arrow_right_alt Course areas
    • arrow_right_alt Undergraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Postgraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Research Masters and PhD
    • arrow_right_alt Online study and short courses
  • Student information

    • arrow_right_alt Current students
    • arrow_right_alt New UTS students
    • arrow_right_alt Graduates (Alumni)
    • arrow_right_alt High school students
    • arrow_right_alt Indigenous students
    • arrow_right_alt International students
  • Admissions

    • arrow_right_alt How to apply
    • arrow_right_alt Entry pathways
    • arrow_right_alt Eligibility
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for students

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Apply for a coursearrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Scholarshipsarrow_right_alt
  • Featured industries

    • arrow_right_alt Agriculture and food
    • arrow_right_alt Defence and space
    • arrow_right_alt Energy and transport
    • arrow_right_alt Government and policy
    • arrow_right_alt Health and medical
    • arrow_right_alt Corporate training
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Tech Central
    • arrow_right_alt Case studies
    • arrow_right_alt Research
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for industry

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Partner with usarrow_right_alt
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Explore our research
    • arrow_right_alt Research centres and institutes
    • arrow_right_alt Graduate research
    • arrow_right_alt Research partnerships
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for research

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Research centres and institutesarrow_right_alt
  • University of Technology Sydney home
Explore the University of Technology Sydney
Category Filters:
University of Technology Sydney home University of Technology Sydney home
  1. home
  2. arrow_forward_ios ... Newsroom
  3. arrow_forward_ios ... 2023
  4. arrow_forward_ios 03
  5. arrow_forward_ios A new model for protecting Indigenous biodiversity knowledge

A new model for protecting Indigenous biodiversity knowledge

16 March 2023

A new research report presents a pathway to recognise and protect Indigenous biodiversity knowledge and practices in a way that ensures Australia’s First Nations communities can maintain control of and see benefit from their traditional knowledge.

Pittosporum angustifolium, or the gumbi gumbi plant, is widespread across most of inland Australia and has been used by Indigenous people in various ways as bush tucker or bush medicine. Its properties are now the subject of scientific investigation. Picture by Margaret Donald via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pittosporum angustifolium, or the gumbi gumbi plant, is widespread across most of inland Australia and has been used by Indigenous people in various ways as bush tucker or bush medicine. Its properties are now the subject of scientific investigation. Picture by Margaret Donald via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Undertaken for the Indigenous Knowledge Forum, the project Garuwanga: Forming a Competent Authority to Protect Indigenous Knowledge, has been led by Director of the Intellectual Property Program in the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Faculty of Law Professor Natalie Stoianoff, supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant.

Professor Stoianoff said the report’s findings offer a critical pathway for governments, industry and other stakeholders to co-design, in full partnership with First Nations communities, effective measures to recognise and protect Indigenous biodiversity knowledge and practices, with full and equitable access and benefit-sharing with those communities.

Australia currently has no dedicated laws to protect Indigenous biodiversity-related knowledge. The Garuwanga report offers an important framework within which to develop ways of protecting this important knowledge.

Professor Natalie Stoianoff

“This report’s release comes at a critical moment in the nation’s history with the momentum to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart and achieve an Indigenous Voice to Parliament,” Professor Stoianoff said.

“The Garuwanga project’s proposals provide opportunities for the realisation of Indigenous people’s rights and interests in biodiversity and traditional knowledge and at the same time ensure sound conservation and protection of Australia’s biodiversity heritage for the benefit of all.

“Australia currently has no dedicated laws to protect Indigenous biodiversity-related knowledge. The Garuwanga report offers an important framework within which to develop ways of protecting this important knowledge.”

Professor Stoianoff said Garuwanga set out options for legal structures for an Indigenous organisation to operate as a competent authority, regulating access and benefit-sharing of Indigenous biodiversity knowledge.

“It provides for a ‘tiered’ approach, with models for competent authorities established at local, regional and national levels. These competent authorities should be self-determining entities, independent from government, controlled and managed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Kakadu Yellow Water (Ngurrungurrudjba) Wetlands

Picture: Adobe Stock

Professor Stoianoff said the Garuwanga Report was also timely in a global context, with the recent UN Biodiversity conference (COP 15) agreeing on a Global Biodiversity Framework aimed at halting the alarming decline in the world’s biodiversity and preserve thirty per cent of lands and seas.

“Australia has some of the most important areas of biological diversity in the world, which have also been subject to severe and ongoing loss resulting from development and the impacts of human-induced climate change,” Professor Stoianoff said.

“Loss of biodiversity also results in the erosion of First Nations communities’ traditional knowledge and practices associated with biodiversity by demands from science, industry and other sectors for commercial products that are derived from, or which include elements of traditional knowledge.”

The Garuwanga Report has been developed in the context of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Nagoya Protocol, a supplementary instrument to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, provides a legal mechanism to ensure that First Nations communities share equally in access to, and in any benefits that are derived from the wider use of this knowledge.

Share
Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn
Back to Business and law

Related News

  • Hunter valley, New South Wales, open cut coal mines. Adobe Stock
    A community blueprint to sustain the Hunter Valley
  • Two men wrestling a calf
    Agriculture must connect with Indigenous people
  • Yerrabingin founder Christian Hampson, with illustrations of edible native plants from the farm.
    Yerrabingin grow world’s first Indigenous rooftop farm

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

University of Technology Sydney

City Campus

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Get in touch with UTS

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

A member of

  • Australian Technology Network
Use arrow keys to navigate within each column of links. Press Tab to move between columns.

Study

  • Find a course
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • How to apply
  • Scholarships and prizes
  • International students
  • Campus maps
  • Accommodation

Engage

  • Find an expert
  • Industry
  • News
  • Events
  • Experience UTS
  • Research
  • Stories
  • Alumni

About

  • Who we are
  • Faculties
  • Learning and teaching
  • Sustainability
  • Initiatives
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Campus and locations
  • Awards and rankings
  • UTS governance

Staff and students

  • Current students
  • Help and support
  • Library
  • Policies
  • StaffConnect
  • Working at UTS
  • UTS Handbook
  • Contact us
  • Copyright © 2025
  • ABN: 77 257 686 961
  • CRICOS provider number: 00099F
  • TEQSA provider number: PRV12060
  • TEQSA category: Australian University
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility