BIOCULTURAL RIGHTS, INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES
This volume presents a comprehensive overview of biocultural rights, examining how we can promote the role of indigenous peoples and local communities
as environmental stewards and how we can ensure that their ways of life are
protected.
With Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) or Community Protocols
(CPs) being increasingly seen as a powerful way of tackling this immense challenge, this book investigates these new instruments and considers the lessons
that can be learnt about the situation of indigenous peoples and local communities. It opens with theoretical insights which provide the reader with foundational concepts such as biocultural diversity, biocultural rights and community
rule-making. In Part Two, the book moves on to community protocols within
the Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) context, while taking a glimpse into the nature
and role of community protocols beyond issues of access to genetic resources and
traditional knowledge. A thorough review of specific cases drawn from fieldbased research around the world is presented in this part. Comprehensive chapters
also explore the negotiation process and raise stimulating questions about the role
of international brokers and organizations and the way they can use BCPs/CPs as
disciplinary tools for national and regional planning or to serve powerful institutional interests. Finally, the third part of the book considers whether BCPs/CPs,
notably through their emphasis on “stewardship of nature” and “tradition”, can
be seen as problematic arrangements that constrain indigenous peoples within the
Western imagination, without any hope of them reconstructing their identities
according to their own visions, or whether they can be seen as political tools and
representational strategies used by indigenous peoples in their struggle for greater
rights to their land, territories and resources, and for more political space.
PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES
This volume presents a comprehensive overview of biocultural rights, examining how we can promote the role of indigenous peoples and local communities
as environmental stewards and how we can ensure that their ways of life are
protected.
With Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) or Community Protocols
(CPs) being increasingly seen as a powerful way of tackling this immense challenge, this book investigates these new instruments and considers the lessons
that can be learnt about the situation of indigenous peoples and local communities. It opens with theoretical insights which provide the reader with foundational concepts such as biocultural diversity, biocultural rights and community
rule-making. In Part Two, the book moves on to community protocols within
the Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) context, while taking a glimpse into the nature
and role of community protocols beyond issues of access to genetic resources and
traditional knowledge. A thorough review of specific cases drawn from fieldbased research around the world is presented in this part. Comprehensive chapters
also explore the negotiation process and raise stimulating questions about the role
of international brokers and organizations and the way they can use BCPs/CPs as
disciplinary tools for national and regional planning or to serve powerful institutional interests. Finally, the third part of the book considers whether BCPs/CPs,
notably through their emphasis on “stewardship of nature” and “tradition”, can
be seen as problematic arrangements that constrain indigenous peoples within the
Western imagination, without any hope of them reconstructing their identities
according to their own visions, or whether they can be seen as political tools and
representational strategies used by indigenous peoples in their struggle for greater
rights to their land, territories and resources, and for more political space.