Coalescing intellectual property incentives, gender inclusiveness and environmental sustainability for female traditional healers in Nigeria

The prevalence of women in the knowledge-based enterprise of traditional healing underscores the role of women in sustainable development. The World Health Organization (WHO) finds that about three quarters of the world’s population depend upon traditional remedies for their health. However, ecosystems suffer and environmentally important animals become extinct due to the wide use of traditional medicine. This paper investigates the linkages between intellectual property rights (IPRs), gender inclusiveness and environmental sustainability. Adopting a feminist legal methodology, the paper analyzes the challenges of securing IPRs for female traditional healers and how these impact on environmental sustainability. The paper finds that ownership of property rights (including IPRs) is central to exercising judgment over the sustainable use of the environment and that such ownership is lacking among female traditional healers. The paper proposes the active synergy of patent offices and traditional healers, following an example from China, as one of the remedies to devise new forms of IPRs that may better suit the needs of women who seek to protect their innovations in the field of traditional medicine. This paper links the ownership of IPRs to environmental sustainability and gender inclusiveness.