in the validation of BCPs by states. Participants also placed emphasis on linking national and
regional laws to the community level. However, the view was expressed that laws and policies do
already exist and can be used by communities to leverage their rights. BCPs could be a mechanism
for communities to harness these existing laws and use them to their advantage.
Though some pointed out the shortcoming of intellectual property laws for traditional knowledge, it
was nevertheless suggested that BCPs could serve as an interface with intellectual property and ABS
laws as well as in the context of protected areas, climate change, REDD and REDD+. Whilst, BCPs
may be triggered to address one specific issue faced by a community, it should also be quite holistic
in nature in order to take into account the wider endogenous development needs of the
community and not solely focused on one issue.
Conclusion
A BCP is a point of interface with the outside world developed by communities and rooted in an
understanding of the external systems that impact on them. They are mechanisms with which
communities are able to meet national laws half way. A BCP is a strategically deployed point of
entry to engage with these external systems, governments or other third parties, explaining to them
how to interact with communities while aiming at securing communities’ well-being.
BCPs are able to encompass a variety of contexts, as portrayed by participants at the meeting. They
are strongly related to the culture, customary norms and beliefs of the communities that develop
them. They describe a balance between the rights of a community to its ecosystem and its duties
toward nurturing this ecosystem. Hence, BCPs aim at safeguarding communities’ custodianship rights
over their natural environment and traditional way of life.
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