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IUCN/CEESP Briefing Note No.10, 2010
Indigenous conservation territories and
areas conserved by indigenous peoples
and local communities (ICCAs) are the
subject of the IUCN/CEESP briefing note.
This larger document provides the
examples and analysis underlying the
policy advice contained in the briefing
note. The document can be read as a
stand-alone document, as it describes the
main concepts. Although their existence is
as old and widespread as human
civilisation itself, ICCAs have emerged
only recently as a major phenomenon in
formal conservation circles. International
policies and programmes, notably those of
the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
encourage today all countries to recognise
and support ICCAs as examples of
effective governance of biocultural
diversity. It is clear, however, that such
recognition and support need to be
carefully tailored, and cannot be
improvised. The briefing note and this
publication offer advice and resources for
governments, civil society organisations,
indigenous peoples and local communities
engaged in collaboration, support and
joint learning on ICCAs.
Adapting agriculture
with traditional
knowledge
l Krystyna Swiderska
IIED Briefing, October
2011
Over the coming
decades, climate change
is likely to pose a major challenge to
agriculture; temperatures are rising,
rainfall is becoming more variable and
extreme weather is becoming a more
common event. Researchers and policy
makers agree that adapting agriculture to
these impacts is a priority for ensuring
future food security. Strategies to achieve
that in practice tend to focus on modern
science. But evidence, both old and new,
suggests that the traditional knowledge
and crop varieties of indigenous peoples
and local communities could prove even
more important in adapting agriculture
to climate change.
Also available in Chinese (traditional
and modern).
n Online: http://pubs.iied.org/17111IIED.html
Protecting traditional
knowledge from the
grassroots up
n Krystyna Swiderska
IIED Briefing, June 2009
For indigenous peoples
round the world,
traditional knowledge
based on natural resources such as
medicinal herbs, forms the core of culture
and identity. But this wealth of
knowledge is under pressure. Indigenous
communities are increasingly vulnerable
to eviction, environmental degradation
and outside interests eager to monopolise
control over their traditional resources.
Intellectual property rights such as
patents, however, sit uneasily with
traditional knowledge. Their commercial
focus wars with fundamental indigenous
principles such as resource access and
sharing. Local customary law offers a
better fit, and findings in China, India,
Kenya, Panama and Peru show how this
pairing can work in practice. The
research has identified common
elements, and key differences, in
customary law that should be informing
policy on traditional knowledge and
genetic resources.
n Online: http://pubs.iied.org/17067IIED.html
Protecting indigenous knowledge
against biopiracy in the Andes
n Alejandro Argumedo and Michel Pimbert
IIED, 2006
This paper presents the Indigenous
Biocultural Heritage Register, an
approach developed by Andean