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65 Swiderska with Milligan, Kohli, Shrumm, Jonas, Hiemstra and Oliva
Box 1: Biodiversity and culture
Biodiversity refers to diverse crop and livestock
varieties which provide food, nutrition and resilience
to climate change, medicinal plants which provide
healthcare, wild plants which provide foods and
resources for plant breeding, and landscapes which
provide vital ecosystem services such as water.
Biodiversity also provides options for income
generation (e.g. health foods, herbal medicines,
natural products, seeds, eco-tourism).
Biodiversity and culture are closely linked and
inter-dependent. Cultural and spiritual values are
enshrined in sacred bio-resources (e.g. coca leaves or
special rice varieties used in rituals), ecosystems (e.g.
sacred forests or mountains) and ancestral landscapes
(e.g. sacred valleys). These values and beliefs help to
sustain biodiversity and related traditional
knowledge; while the use of diverse biological
resources helps to sustain traditional knowledge and
cultural values (Swiderska et al., 2009).
Even where biodiversity is not lost,
access to biodiversity resources may be
restricted by intellectual property rights
(e.g. commercial patents on seeds), or
conservation initiatives such as strict
protected areas. These pressures are
making it ever harder for communities to
secure their basic needs and continue their
customary role and responsibilities as
stewards of biodiversity.
Indigenous peoples, who make up a
third of the world’s poor and account for
most of the world’s cultural diversity (5,000
different cultures), are under particular
pressure. They often inhabit areas of high
biological diversity and share a spiritual,
cultural, social and economic relationship
with their traditional lands. Their customary laws and practices reflect an
attachment to land and a responsibility for
preserving these lands for future generations. Yet, they often face marginalisation,
displacement from their lands, territories
and resources, denial of land rights, and
adverse impacts from large-scale development (UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, 2010).
This special issue of Participatory
Learning and Action explores two important participatory tools that indigenous
people and local communities can use to
help defend their biocultural heritage
against these pressures and threats, and
assert their rights over resources and traditional knowledge.
• Community protocols (CPs) are charters
of rules and responsibilities in which
communities set out their customary rights
to natural resources and land, as recognised in customary, national and
international laws.
• Free, prior informed consent (FPIC)
involves processes in which communities
decide whether or not to allow projects
affecting their land or resources to go
ahead, and on what terms.
In this overview article to the issue,
written by the guest editors, we first set the
scene, exploring CPs and FPIC further,
emphasising the importance of community-level participatory processes in their
development and highlighting the dangers
of using them in a top-down, mechanistic
way. We then consider recent changes in
international law that have given these
tools official support.
Next we turn to the special issue itself,
introducing the process we used to develop
it, the objectives we hope to achieve, and
outlining the structure of the issue. We
finish by identifying key lessons and
conclusions on how to effectively support
FPIC/PIC and CPs to maximise positive
impacts for biodiversity and livelihoods,
drawing on the articles in this issue.
Community protocols
Many indigenous peoples and local
communities have their own orally held
rules and procedures, also known as protocols, to regulate conduct and interactions
within their communities, with outsiders,
and with the territories and areas on which
they depend. These are often rooted in
customary laws and rights which have
sustained biodiversity and biocultural
heritage for generations (Box 2).
However, it is external actors (e.g.
government agencies, researchers, companies or NGOs) who tend to define the terms