In Touch l Related resources 197
Biological Diversity (CBD) and access and
benefit-sharing. Part II looks at other
frameworks to which biocultural
protocols can be applied by indigenous
and local communities, including REDD,
the CBD programme of work on
protected areas and payment for
ecosystem services schemes. Part III looks
more broadly at the meaning of
biocultural protocols for environmental
law. According to the authors, the
development of biocultural protocols is
one way in which communities can
increase their capacity to drive the local
implementation of international and
national environmental laws. Such a
protocol is developed after a community
undertakes a consultative process to
outline their core ecological, cultural and
spiritual values and customary laws
relating to their traditional knowledge
and resources, based on which they
provide clear terms and conditions to
regulate access to their knowledge and
resources.
n Online: www.unep.org/community
protocols/PDF/communityprotocols.pdf
Community
biocultural
protocols: building
mechanisms for
access and benefitsharing among the
communities of the
Potato Park based
on customary
Quechua norms
l ANDES (Peru), the Potato Park
communities and IIED, 2012
The Potato Park communities in Peru are
deeply committed to the conservation of
biocultural resources, associated
knowledge and indigenous rights, and
undertook this research to further
investigate the role of customary norms
and institutions in the protection of
traditional knowledge (TK) and
resources. The development of a
biocultural protocol, in the form of the
Inter-community Agreement for
Equitable Access and Benefit-Sharing, is
the result of their efforts. In addition to
providing a valuable example of effective
community-based protection of TK and
genetic or biological resources in praxis,
this initiative is also one of only a handful
of examples worldwide of working
models that stem directly from customary
laws and norms.
Given the present international
paucity of models that adequately value
and protect indigenous and local
community rights, biodiversity and
customary norms and practices in
relation to benefit-sharing and access to
resources and knowledge – the present
initiative may further serve as an example
of best practice in relation to the
implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.
n Download the summary report at:
http://pubs.iied.org/G03168.html and the
detailed report at:
http://pubs.iied.org/G03340.html
Protecting
community rights
over traditional
knowledge:
implications of
customary laws and
practices. Key
findings and
recommendations
(2005-2009)
l Krystyna Swiderska, Alejandro
Argumedo, Yiching Song, Jingsong Li,
Ruchi Pant, Heraclio Herrera, Doris Mutta,
Peter Munyi, S Vedavathy
IIED, 2009
This folder provides a summary of the
findings from this IIED project,
including the results of six case studies,
which involved participatory research
with indigenous communities in China,
India, Kenya, Panama and Peru, and
policy analysis. The aim was to
understand existing customary law