Protegendo o Conhecimento Tradicional em Moçambique: Quadros jurídicos e institucionais vigentes

This report analyzes the legal and institutional frameworks for protecting traditional knowledge (TK) in Mozambique, focusing on biodiversity, cultural heritage, and traditional medicine. It identifies a significant gap between high-level policy commitments and functional regulatory frameworks, noting that while Mozambique has ratified international agreements like the Nagoya Protocol, it lacks specific, operational laws to prevent the misappropriation of TK. The document highlights ongoing efforts to revise the 2007 Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) regulation and the potential for using geographical indications and academic partnerships to safeguard community knowledge.

• Mozambique lacks functional regulatory frameworks specifically designed to protect traditional knowledge associated with biological resources, although a favorable political climate is currently driving progress.
• Decree No. 19/2007 (the ABS Regulation) is the primary legislation for protecting TK linked to biodiversity, establishing the Ministry of Environment as the national authority and requiring prior informed consent and benefit-sharing contracts for commercial use.
• The National Directorate of Environment (DINAB) has been leading a revision of the ABS regulation since 2021 to align it with international standards and fill existing gaps, with a roadmap including a Digital Bioprospecting Portal and model contracts.
• Community Conservation Areas (ACC) allow local communities to manage public domain land for the conservation of natural resources, including sacred forests and sites of cultural importance, and enable them to negotiate commercial use contracts directly with the private sector.
• The revised Forestry and Wildlife Law (Law No. 17/2023) protects traditional consumption practices, exempting them from taxation and allowing communities to use protected species for food, medicine, and cultural practices provided they do not harm the species.
• Intellectual property laws in Mozambique, such as the Copyright Law (Law No. 9/2022), recognize 'expressions of folklore' as belonging to the practicing community, but there is a 'grey area' regarding the protection of know-how for medicinal or gastronomic uses of biodiversity.
• Geographical Indications (GI) and denominations of origin under the Industrial Property Code offer a potential tool for protecting regional TK; the first such designation was granted to goat meat from Tete province in 2018.
• The National Policy on Traditional Medicine (Resolution 11/2004) aims to integrate safe traditional practices into the National Health System, but the subsequent legislative process was interrupted around 2015.
• Academic research can successfully implement benefit-sharing; a notable case involved the Pedagogical University and AMETRAMO, where a patent for an anti-tumor treatment derived from Tabernaemontana elegans included a financial benefit-sharing agreement with the traditional medicine association.
• Significant barriers to the effective protection of TK include widespread poverty, weak community institutions, high illiteracy rates, and a lack of legal knowledge among local populations.

APA

Natural Justice (n.d.). Protegendo o Conhecimento Tradicional em Moçambique: Quadros jurídicos e institucionais vigentes. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Mozambique-Traditional-Knowledge-Legal-Framework-REPORT-Designed-Portugues.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Protegendo o Conhecimento Tradicional em Moçambique: Quadros jurídicos e institucionais vigentes. n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Mozambique-Traditional-Knowledge-Legal-Framework-REPORT-Designed-Portugues.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=Protegendo o Conhecimento Tradicional em Moçambique: Quadros jurídicos e institucionais vigentes |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Mozambique-Traditional-Knowledge-Legal-Framework-REPORT-Designed-Portugues.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljusticendprotegendo, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Protegendo o Conhecimento Tradicional em Moçambique: Quadros jurídicos e institucionais vigentes}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Mozambique-Traditional-Knowledge-Legal-Framework-REPORT-Designed-Portugues.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }