65 Swiderska with Milligan, Kohli, Shrumm, Jonas, Hiemstra and Oliva
38
(Jonas, Bavikatte and Shrumm, 2010).
While broader acceptance of the need
for FPIC is beginning to emerge (Colchester, 2010) there is still limited
appreciation of the role and value of
community protocols amongst governments, commercial companies and donors,
even within the biodiversity community. As
well as defending rights, community protocols have huge potential for improving
governance and conservation of biodiversity at the local level, and for strengthening
biocultural systems for resilience to climate
change (Argumedo, Sibuye et al.; Guri et al.)
Efforts are needed to improve understanding of community protocols, of how
to effectively support them in practice and
of the benefits for different stakeholders,
including government and business, across
different sectors. At the same time, we need
to avoid coming up with blueprints for
these rights-based tools, and ensure that
external actors provide flexible support
rather than setting standard procedures
which prevent real community participation. We hope that this special issue will
serve as a first step in this endeavour – by
sharing the lessons from a diversity of experiences and participatory processes.
Last thoughts
There are undoubtedly many more NGOs
and indigenous organisations undertaking
similar initiatives with CPs and FPIC, building on earlier attempts at participatory
processes for community empowerment,
documentation and organising to defend
customary rights. We hope that this issue will
support and inform these practitioners, and
inspire them to reflect on these potentially
emancipatory tools, and to share their experiences with others. The resources section of
this issue lists some platforms for sharing on
CPs and FPIC – join the debate!
CONTACT DETAILS
Krystyna Swiderska
Senior Researcher
International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED)
80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8NH,
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 3463 7399
Fax: +44 20 3514 9055
Email: krystyna.swiderska@iied.org
Websites: www.iied.org
www.bioculturalheritage.org
Angela Milligan
Co-editor, Participatory Learning and Action
International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED)
Email: angela.milligan@iied.org
Websites: www.iied.org
www.planotes.org
Kanchi Kohli
Kalpavriksh and Campaign for Conservation
and Community Control over Biodiversity
India
Email: kanchikohli@gmail.com
Mobile: +91 981 190 3112