In their introductory chapter, the editors state that the aim of this book is to describe early efforts at defining and protecting traditional knowledge nationally and internationally, at summarizing the existing state of international negotiation over traditional knowledge and at opening up discussion of non-proprietary approaches to protecting the interests of indigenous peoples in traditional knowledge. A wide ranging introductory chapter (likely to be of maximum interest to the general reader) explores the approaches to traditional knowledge of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Nagoya Protocol, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. The first part of the book then sets out the international context in which traditional knowledge is being debated in more detail. The second part presents six case studies on recognition and use of traditional knowledge from different countries with a strong emphasis on Canada from which three of the studies come. The final chapter proposes a new framework for discussing protection of traditional knowledge. While this is undoubtedly an important debate of considerable relevance to those involved in the identification of genetic resources with new useful traits, the book is very much concerned with legal perspectives and may be of only marginal relevance to most of those involved in agricultural research.