Льыоравэтльан - The Seminar ''Traditional Indigenous Knowledge'' Organized by LIENIP Was Held During the 6th Session of UNPFII

On 21 May 2007 in the UN Headquarters in New York a seminar “Traditional Indigenous Knowledge” was held as a side event to the session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The seminar was organized by LIENIP with the support of the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and was graciously co-sponsored by the University of California in Los Angeles, UCLA Center for Information as Evidence.
The Seminar addressed problems of safeguarding knowledge resources of indigenous communities in a form of a dialog among representatives of indigenous peoples organizations, political circles, academia, and UN specialized agencies.

The panelists included:
From indigenous peoples’ organizations:
- Ms. Gulvaira Shermatova, Kumandin indigenous people, LIENIP, Russian Federation;
- Ms. Ulia Gosart, Udmurt indigenous people, LIENIP, Russian Federation;
- Mr. Mattias Ahren, Saami indigenous people, Saami Council, Sweden.
- Mr. Stepan Popov, Yakut indigenous people, Yurta Mira, Russian Federation.

From academia:
- Dr. Anne Gilliland. University of California in Los Angeles, USA.

From the specialized UN agenicies:
- Mr. Ramiz Alakbarov. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA);
- Mr. Rama Rao, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Among the special guests were Yuri Boitchenko (UNPFII member, Russian Federation), Lidia Bardakova (UNFPA, Russian office), Alexey Akgigitov (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian Federation), Alexey Zinko (Ministry of Regional Development, Russian Federation), representatives of indigenous peoples organizations from different countries of the world.

The Seminar featured multiple perspectives on the issue of preserving and maintaining knowledge resources of indigenous communities, highlighted potential dangers and difficulties, and created a forum for discussing best practices and lessons learned.