The Community Cultural Entrepreneurship Work: Rastafari and Maroon Training Program has the objective of providing hands-on technical training in the documentation of cultural heritage and greater understanding of the management of the intellectual property (IP) aspects related thereto. The training program for communities helps them to record, document and preserve their own cultural traditions and creative expressions while simultaneously managing their IP interests. The program enables communities to acquire the requisite technical skills and provides the equipment to record, document and digitize their cultural heritage.

The training program consisted of three-and-a-half days of formal in-class training at the Jamaican Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) headquarters in Kingston and two field trips to the Charles Town Maroon community and to the Rastafari Trench Town Culture Yard in Kingston. The event was attended by self-funded participants identified by JIPO.The first two phases of the project were completed in December 2011 and January 2013, and preliminary discussions are underway towards developing a follow-up project involving a detailed valuation of community cultural intellectual property (IP) assets, the provision of international legal advice and representation and expert assistance in the development of IP management strategies.

The training program for communities helps them to record, document and preserve their own cultural traditions and creative expressions while simultaneously managing their IP interests. The program enables communities to acquire the requisite technical skills and provides the equipment to record, document and digitize their cultural heritage.

The project entailed collaboration between WIPO's Traditional Knowledge Division and Caribbean Unit, Regional Bureau for Latin American and the Caribbean, the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), and the Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council, for the benefit of the Rastafari and Maroon communities, in partnership with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, USA.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Jamaican Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, USA