In partnership with the ABS Initiative for Africa, UNEP and the LIFE Network, Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) presented in a side event at SBSTTA on Bio-cultural Community Protocols: A Community Approach to Ensuring the Integrity of Environmental Law and Policy. The side event discussed bio-cultural community protocols as one approach that indigenous peoples and local communities can use to clarify terms and conditions for engaging with other stakeholders regarding their natural resources and traditional knowledge. The event included presentations on community protocols, the launch of the Samburu Protocol, and the Natural Justice-UNEP DVD collection of materials relevant to community protocols and rights-based approaches. Participants at this and the two previous side events at SBSTTA found community protocols to be a very useful tool that can be used in the context of community conserved and co-managed areas to secure community rights.
