ABSTRACT
For centuries, indigenous and local communities have created and developed technologies, uses and practices related to the natural resources existing on their lands, which are usually regions with high biological diversity, such as, the neotropical forests, which are located in South and Central America and the Caribbean and include the Amazon Rainforest. These indigenous communities’ technologies, uses and practices are known as traditional knowledge (TK). 1 This knowledge has been useful in developing products and processes mainly by pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, which hold intellectual property rights in order to hinder the production and putting on the market of unauthorized copies. Technologies, uses and practices traditionally developed by indigenous and local communities, on the contrary, do not enjoy such protection.
