THE BIOCULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE SELF-DETERMINATION AND AUTONOMY IN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The ways of life of indigenous peoples and like-minded local communities promote sustainable use and preserva- tion of biodiversity, but the pressures and the current development model is impacting their customs, languages and worldviews. The emergence of biocultural rights seeks to recognize and protect the intrinsic relationships between nature and culture of these communities. Recently, Biocultural Community Protocols (BCP) have acquired legal reception with the Nagoya Protocol (NP). Under the umbrella of this protocol, the BCPs have been oriented towards developing a fair and equitable distribution of the benefits derived from the use of biogenetic resources. However, as we demonstrate, the BCPs can be used by communities as regulatory frameworks to realize their autonomy, self-determination and ancestral law towards the integral and effective intergenerational transmission of their biocultural heritage. This study codified and analyzed 17 Biocultural Community Protocols from Latin America and Africa. The main purpose was to elicit the main orientation of the Latin American BCPs. Through content analysis and hermeneutics, the study explored if these protocols evidence initiatives towards the affirmation of biocultural heritage, autonomy and sustainable self-determination. The most common category within the protocols was Community Protocols -Aspects-; some categories and codes, such as safeguards, the role of women and distribution of benefits, are scarcely represented..