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Abstract

Indigenous or Traditional Knowledge is that information or knowledge that has been developed by indigenous people in various regions of the world. Such knowledge generally relies exclusively on past experiences and observations and has been transmitted orally or in some form of script across generations of groups or communities of indigenous people. Therefore, this knowledge often has a cultural context, a collective ownership and is constantly evolving. More often than not, this indigenous knowledge is the only source of livelihood for the practitioners. As a result, most of them are not willing to divulge the knowledge without any form of benefit. In order to further develop this knowledge for the benefit of the general populace, promote and improve traditional medicine practice, guard against misappropriation, prevent extinction, and ensure documentation and conservation, it is necessary to promote equitable rewards and invariably protection for the originators of the knowledge. This study was to determine reciprocal benefits based on the requests of the local people through the use of questionnaires. As envisaged, majority of the practitioners wanted immediate and monetary form of compensation. However this was superseded by the desire for traditional medicine clinic/ hospital. It was discovered that further training was desired by only a handful of the practitioners and these were practitioners from a particular geopolitical zone of the country. Other needs included basic equipment to make the practice easier, cars and infrastructure for the practitioners’ communities.

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