Melangkap Community Protocol

Alice Matthew (Borneo Conservancy) and Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) spent the week of the 10-14 February, 2014, working with community researchers and community leaders in the Melangkap cluster of villages to assist in the further development of their community protocol. The communities have been working for over a year, as part of the Kinabalu Biocultural Law Project which is sponsored by the Sabah Biodiversity Centre and UNDP Small Grants Programme, to assess their local resilience and set out for others their endogenous plans. The draft protocol will soon be workshopped across all five of the Melangkap villages before being finalized and signed by all community members, including the community leaders.

ASEAN Heritage Parks Conference

Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) is attending the Fourth ASEAN Heritage Parks (AHP) Conference from 1-4 October in the Philippines. Participants will discuss how to achieve international biodiversity targets and identify opportunities for international cooperation. Thematic sessions include: effective management of protected areas; biodiversity and climate change; integrating biodiversity values; ecotourism, business and biodiversity; and indigenous and local communities in protected areas. 

Notably, the ASEAN Declaration on Heritage Parks was agreed and signed by the environment ministers of the 10 ASEAN Member States in December 2003 in Yangon, Myanmar. There are more than 32 ASEAN Heritage Parks in the region, including Kinabalu Park (Sabah Malaysia) about which Harry will speak. For more information, see here.