25
Community protocols
and free, prior informed
consent – overview and
lessons learnt
1
by KRYSTYNA SWIDERSKA with ANGELA MILLIGAN,
KANCHI KOHLI, HOLLY SHRUMM, HARRY JONAS, WIM HIEMSTRA
and MARÍA JULIA OLIVA
Introduction
Indigenous, traditional and local communities have sustainably used and conserved
a vast diversity of plants, animals and
ecosystems since the dawn of humankind
(Posey, 1999). For many rural communities
in the global South – including some 370
million indigenous peoples – biodiversity
and traditional knowledge (TK) continue
to play an important role in livelihoods,
food security, healthcare and well-being,
whether they are farmers, pastoralists,
forest dwellers or fisherfolk. Biodiversity is
also closely linked to cultural and spiritual
values (Box 1).
Indigenous peoples and local communities have helped to create and enhance this
rich biocultural heritage, for example by
domesticating and improving thousands of
native crops and livestock breeds, and developing related knowledge and practices.1
However, with the loss of biodiversity in
rural areas, valuable resources such as
climate-resilient crops, medicinal plants and
wild foods are disappearing.2 Cultural diversity is also being lost at an unprecedented
rate and with it, ancestral knowledge of how
to use and conserve biodiversity.3
The causes of this ‘double extinction
crisis’ include habitat change due to the
expansion of commercial agriculture,
industry and infrastructure and the overexploitation of natural resources such as
minerals and timber.4 This, in many cases,
also results in loss of land or natural
resources for communities.
1 Biocultural heritage is the knowledge, biodiversity, landscapes, cultural values and
customary laws of indigenous peoples and local communities. Its components are interdependent and together sustain local economies. See: www.bioculturalheritage.org
2 Species extinction is occurring at 100 times the natural rate, and is likely to accelerate in the
coming decades, according to the Global Environment Outlook 4 (see:
www.unep.org/geo/geo4.asp). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) has estimated that we have lost 75% of our crop diversity over the last century. During
the last six years alone, 62 livestock breeds became extinct (FAO, 2007).
3 It is estimated that up to 90% of all languages, an indicator of cultural diversity, will be lost
by 2100 (UNESCO, 2003).
4 For more information about the causes of biodiversity loss, see Global Biodiversity Outlook
3. Online: www.cbd.int/gbo3/