Indigenous and traditional communities in Africa and elsewhere depend on the natural environment for their livelihood. Traditional Knowledge (TK) related to medicine, agriculture, fisheries and food preservation, among others, is an important tool for their survival. Due to, among other reasons, advancement in biotechnology, the value of TK and associated genetic resources has increased tremendously in the past few years. Such increase in value calls for concerted legal efforts for protection. Mindful of this, the international community is working on possible modalities for protecting TK. Organisations involved in TK protection include the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Council for the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Bank. The African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) has, likewise, recently adopted a protocol for the protection of TK and expressions of folklore, the Swakopmund Protocol, named after the Namibian town where it was adopted. These organisations by and large use the conventional or western intellectual property system as their point of departure for devising methods of protecting TK. However, the inherent differences between western intellectual property systems and traditional communities’ perceptions still pose challenges to an effective protection of TK with the aim of benefitting their communities of origin. This chapter underscores some of these challenges and offers perspectives for a holistic approach that puts environmental protection and community welfare at the centre of the equilibrium as opposed to proprietary rights, whether collective or individual.