The river, the law and memory: the legal protection of traditional knowledge in Amazon

Abstract

This article investigates the deep connection between traditional Amazonian knowledge and the realization of fundamental rights, advocating for its legal protection as an implicit fundamental right. The Amazon is understood here not only as a repository of biodiversity but as a vast universe of ancestral knowledge. The text addresses the vulnerability of this knowledge in the face of biopiracy and the inadequacy of current regulatory frameworks. The methodology used is bibliographic and jurisprudential research, with a qualitative and interpretative approach. The constitutional foundations and international framework that support the protection of this knowledge are analyzed, as well as the role of the Judiciary in ensuring its safeguarding, in light of emblematic cases. It is concluded that there is an imperative need for a more assertive and sensitive approach from the Law and the justice system, which recognizes the existential dimension and systemic relevance of traditional knowledge for the sustainability of the biome and the dignity of the Amazonian peoples, proposing an expanded reading of fundamental rights that incorporates this perspective