INTRODUCTION
By articulating the above information in a BCP, communities
determined development plans. We draw on these examples
assert their rights to self-determination and improve their
to argue that BCPs are a practical way for communities to
ability to engage with other stakeholders such as government
ensure that the IRABS generates the local environmental and
agencies, researchers and project proponents. These
social goals it is intended to promote.
stakeholders are consequently better able to see the
community in its entirety, including the extent of their territories
Chapter 3 illustrates how the concept of BCPs is gaining
and natural resources, their bio-cultural values and customary
international recognition. It draws on the negotiations within
laws relating to the management of natural resources, their
the WGABS, as well as several subsidiary meetings held in
challenges, and their visions of ways forward. By referencing
2009 between WGABS 7 and 8: the Meeting of the Group of
international and national laws, ILCs affirm their rights to
Technical and Legal Experts on Traditional Knowledge
manage and benefit from their natural resources. They are
Associated with Genetic Resources, the International Vilm
also better placed to ensure that any approach to access TK
Workshop on Matters Related to TK Associated with Genetic
or any other intended activity on their land, such as the
Resources and the ABS Regime, and the Pan-African Meeting
establishment of a REDD project or a protected area, occurs
of ILCs on ABS and TK.
according to their customary laws. Overall, BCPs enable
communities to affirm their role as the drivers of conservation
Part II of the book looks more broadly at other frameworks to
and sustainable use of biodiversity in ways that support their
which BCPs can be applied by ILCs. Chapter 4 focuses on
livelihoods and traditional ways of life.
REDD, making a case for the use of BCPs by forest-dependent
communities to address the serious concerns ILCs have about
This book illustrates the application of BCPs to a range of
the effects of REDD on their forests rights. Chapter 5 explores
environmental legal frameworks. Part I focuses on the CBD
the interplay between protected areas, ILCs and TK within the
and ABS. Chapter 1 presents a bio-cultural critique of the CBD
framework of the CBD and the Programme of Work on
and ABS and international environmental law in general,
Protected Areas. Specifically, it evaluates the contribution
highlighting their perceived strengths and practical weaknesses
that BCPs can make to improving ILCs’ participation in two
from a community perspective. Specifically, we detail how
types of protected areas, namely, collaboratively managed
Article 8(j) presents a holistic vision of the protection of bio-
protected areas and indigenous and community conserved
cultural communities’ ways of life and how, in contrast, the
areas. Chapter 6 describes how payment for ecosystem
Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing (WGABS) has
services schemes operate and their potential to contribute to
focused on facilitating only the commercial application of TK.
communities’ livelihoods, and sets out how BCPs provide
We argue that the narrow conception of Article 8(j) adopted
a means for ILCs to engage with and determine the shape
by the IRABS could lead to ABS agreements further weakening
of the schemes.
communities’ cultural and spiritual foundations. We highlight
how the CBD has tried to curb free market excesses via the
Part III draws on the book’s overarching themes to look more
development of instruments such as the Bonn Guidelines to
broadly at the meaning of BCPs for environmental law.
regulate users of TK and GR, yet suggest that the Guidelines’
Chapter 7 traces the emergence of bio-cultural jurisprudence,
lack of mechanisms to empower communities to continue
a nascent form of legal thought founded on the principles of
developing their TK and GR jeopardizes the local integrity of
self-determination and respect for customary laws. Bio-cultural
the IRABS. There is a danger that the international intention
jurisprudence challenges dominant notions of how to “protect
of ABS may falter at the local level, thus undermining its ability
TK” and suggests a paradigm shift is required within the law
to implement Article 8(j).
itself if ILCs are to be recognized as drivers of the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity and the generation of
In Chapter 2, we suggest that the development of BCPs is a
culturally appropriate livelihoods.
means with which communities can respond to the challenges
posed to them by the incumbent IRABS. We set out the process
that leads to developing a protocol and, through examples
of BCPs, illustrate how communities are using them to manage
their TK, respond to various local challenges and promote self-
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