l Abstracts 19
external actors wishing to implement
development projects and research on the
territory. The ancestral territory of the 30
afro-descendant communities is
recognised by law but not in practice, and
the BCP aims to ensure that these
customary rights are recognised in
municipal planning processes and national
policies. The protocol was developed
through a participatory process involving
workshops and field interviews facilitated
by the Pacific Institute of Environmental
Research, with methodology approved by
the ASOCASAN council. The article shows
how a key challenge was to get the local
government to recognise the legitimacy of
the protocol, since it is a new tool.
Involving local authorities in the
development of community protocols is
important for this recognition, and also to
ensure follow-up projects once the
protocol has been developed.
12. Creating the Ulu Papar biocultural
community protocol
Theresia John, Patricia John, Louis Bugiad
and Agnes Lee Agama
Following conflicts in a protected area and
in the shadow of a threatening
development project, the people of Ulu
Papar (from the Dusun indigenous group)
in Borneo came together to create a
biocultural community protocol,
articulating the interests, rights and
responsibilities of the community in the
preservation, management and utilisation
of their territories and culture. This article
describes the process to develop the
protocol, which built on a prior
participatory research process to
document the use of key resources for
community livelihoods. The protocol was
developed through a series of workshops,
trainings and discussions, in a process
facilitated by community members. A
travelling roadshow was used to reach as
many remote villages as possible and
engage people in the discussion to shape
the content of the protocol. The challenge
now is to build on these participatory
processes and form constructive
relationships with outside actors and
government agencies.
13. Accessible technologies and FPIC:
independent monitoring with forest
communities in Cameroon
Jerome Lewis and Téodyl Nkuintchua
This article looks at the partnership
between communities and a communitybased monitoring project on illegal logging
and advocacy in Cameroon. Here both
FPIC and BCPs were used to strengthen
ownership of the project, following an
evaluation which showed weak
appropriation of the monitoring technology
by participating communities. The first step
was to hold extensive consultations with
each community so that they could either
refuse or give consent to the project, using
an FPIC form and checklist to check the
understanding of the information given
about the project at each stage. If granted,
community protocols were then developed
to provide the basis for organising activities
throughout the project – setting out who
would participate in data collection and
mapping, how they would participate and
their roles and responsibilities. The process
of elaborating FPIC forms and community
protocols was important because it enabled
most of the challenges and difficulties of
implementation by the community to be
identified at this stage. The use of accessible
technologies and GPS icons designed with
community participation, enabled
communities to take control of a successful
and empowering project.
14. Biocultural community protocols and
ethical biotrade: exploring participatory
approaches in Peru
María Julia Oliva, Johanna von Braun
and Gabriela Salinas Lanao
This article describes a ‘biocultural
dialogue’ – a more focused BCP adapted to
the context of ethical biotrade. It was
developed by a local indigenous forestry