On Wednesday morning, 26 March 2026, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following oral intervention on the PABS Annex drawn from these notes.
The onscreen text that the Secretariat just shared for the PABS Annex includes a number of references to traditional knowledge. There are references to traditional knowledge in the main Pandemic Agreement, that make sense, because the main agreement deals with diagnostics and treatments.
This Annex, however, is about physical samples and digital sequence information about novel pathogens.
We are aware of work at the WHO on databases for traditional medical information, and are familiar with several negotiations on intellectual property, and access and benefit sharing relating to traditional knowledge, including the new BBNJ high seas treaty, the CBD Cali Fund, and more than two decades of negotiations at WIPO.
We do not think language on traditional knowledge should be included in the PABS Annex. It will not make it easier to close out the Annex text. The issues about access and benefit sharing for traditional knowledge are important, complicated and also different from those associated with access to novel pathogens and their sequence data.