Protecting Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge in Indigenous Communities and Government through Inclusive Moral Rights

The growing threat of biopiracy highlights the urgent need to protect Indonesia's genetic resources and traditional knowledge, particularly those belonging to indigenous communities. Indonesia's rich biodiversity and cultural heritage have long been targeted for exploitation without fair benefit-sharing or acknowledgment. This paper briefly explores the legal foundation for the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge at both international and national levels, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol, and Indonesian laws such as the Patent Law and Government Regulation No. 56/2022. Employing a doctrinal legal research method, the study examines relevant legal instruments and national policy documents, supported by secondary data and qualitative analysis. The findings reveal that despite progressive legal frameworks recognizing communal intellectual property and inclusive moral rights, implementation remains limited due to fragmented databases, lack of coordination among institutions, and absence of mechanisms for prior informed consent and benefit-sharing. Inclusive moral rights—which combine collective moral claims with intellectual property protections—are proposed as a normative foundation to empower local communities and the state in asserting sovereignty over their resources. The paper argues that such rights must be operationalized through an integrated database system, enforceable contracts, and regulatory bodies that facilitate equitable access and benefit-sharing. The novelty of this research lies in its conceptualization of inclusive moral rights as a transformative legal tool to bridge communal ownership and intellectual property regimes, ensuring that traditional knowledge and genetic resources are legally protected, ethically respected, and sustainably managed within a national and global framework.