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| THE CONTENTS OF FARMERS'
RIGHTS: Approaches to protecting farmers' traditional knowledge Protecting farmers' traditional knowledge can mean different things. Based on the ownership approach, it would mean offering ownership status to farmers with the right to act against misappropriation and decide over the use of their knowledge and related plant genetic resources. In Norway, farmers have stressed that their traditional knowledge is about to disappear. Protection, in their understanding, is about ensuring that the knowledge does not die out, and for that purpose the broadest possible sharing of knowledge is necessary. However, an ownership approach to protection could provide disincentives to sharing knowledge between and among farmers, as has been seen among potato farmers in Peru. Some proponents of the stewardship approach note that agricultural plant varieties and related knowledge are normally shared among farming communities: 'Ownership' in this context is generally an alien idea among farmers, representing a profound break with traditional perceptions. Whether a stewardship approach, an ownership approach or a combination is chosen to protecting traditional knowledge related to agro-biodiversity, it should not provide any disincentives to the sharing of knowledge and genetic resources among farmers, nor should it contribute to genetic erosion or the loss of traditional knowledge. That would be against the intentions of the ITPGRFA. Pages in this sub-section:  THE CONTENTS
OF FARMERS' RIGHTS Two
approaches to Farmers' Rights Approaches to protecting farmers' traditional
knowledge Approaches
to ensuring equitable benefit sharing Approaches to ensuring farmers'
participation in decision-making Approaches to farmers' customary
use of propagating material Conditions for the combination of
approaches Towards a
common ground of understanding What this may mean in
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