The Bailique Community Protocol in Brazil

Guest blog by Roberta Peixoto Ramos, PhD student at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

In December 2014, the communities of the Bailique Archipelago, an area situated in the Amazonian State of Amapá in Brazil, assembled to vote for the final agreements that would compose their Community Protocol. This was the result of 14 months of workshops, meetings and informal conversations, where communities focused on different aspects of their livelihood, decision-making processes and the need to be informed and empowered to have a more equal dialogue with any external actor that might approach the communities.

The project to construct the Bailique Community Protocol was born out of a necessity to recognize the right of indigenous people and traditional communities to be involved and participate in all decisions related to their territory in a national scenario that was (and still is) characterized by a complete disrespect for this right. Furthermore, the discussion around the community protocol focused on the recognition of the vital role that these local communities have in the conservation of biodiversity.

Thus, the community protocol is composed of community local rules that reflect their traditional way of life and the manner in which the community relates to itself and to external actors. Also, the protocol is a document that defines procedures, criteria and tools for territorial management and the sustainable use of natural resources.

The Bailique communities use small boats to move
around their territory.
Credit: Paulo Santos/Acervo H

The Community Protocol project was proposed to the Bailique communities in 2013 by the Brazilian NGO ‘Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico (GTA)’^[1], which is a network of different community institutions located throughout the Brazilian Amazon. The Bailique archipelago is situated at the mouth of the Amazon river, at around 200 km from the city of Macapá in the state of Amapá, and only reachable by boat.  The population is of about eleven thousand people distributed in approximately 51 communities. Their main activities are fishing and extraction of forest products, of which acai berry extraction is the main source of income.

The foundation of the methodology developed to construct community protocols is to enable the full participation of communities in all aspects and all levels of the project. Hence, the first step was to get the community’s free, prior and informed consent with regards to having the project in their territory. It is interesting to note that the Bailique community was not facing any impending threat at the time and their decision to start a process to construct their community protocol was based on their vision that the protocol would enable the community to be better organized locally and more empowered rather than help them with a specific conflict.

The methodology developed was divided in four major workshops covering the following areas (i) a social, environmental, cultural and economic analysis of their territory and communities; (ii) relevant national legislation, international treaties and public policies; (iii) access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and benefit-sharing and (iv) risks and opportunities of the protocol.

One of the most innovative tools proposed was the so called ‘consultation document’, which was an instrument used to ensure a more horizontal participation of the communities. During the workshops, each community would send their representative, who would discuss issues related to their community and to the Bailique territory. All these discussions were to become part of the text of their protocol. In order to avoid that the Bailique Protocol become a mere reflection of the leadership’s views (understanding that there are also power challenges at the local level), the project created a system where all the answers given by these leaders during the workshops were systematized in a ‘consultation document’, which was then circulated to every household in order to verify the answers given. In this ‘consultation document’ there were the answers given by the leaders and a space where the person consulted could agree, disagree or add to the answer given. There were two rounds of this ‘consultation document’. One took place after the first workshop and the second after the first general assembly where the leaders had the chance to see the results of the first ‘consultation document’ and react to what was changed or agreed. These household visits were done by the ‘support team’, which was formed by young people from the communities who wanted to get more involved. The result was that at the end of the process the project visited over 70% of the households taking part in the protocol and there was an increased sense of legitimacy and belonging, as young people increasingly became the voice of the project.

Community discussing the need to improve the quality
 of their products. Credit: Paulo Santos/Acervo H

The Bailique Community Protocol has achieved many important results to date and the project is now working with communities to help them put in practice the decisions of their Protocol assembly. Some of the more concrete results are:

• Creation of the Association of the Bailique Community Protocol (ACTB), which is composed of traditional leadership and young leaders that represent and act upon the decisions of the assembly.
• Identification of four main products of their sociobiodiversity that they want to explore further, improve its quality and search for new technology and new markets: fish, acai berries, essential oils and medicinal plants.
• Identification of land irregularity in the region (that was not clear before the protocol), which was causing conflicts, legal uncertainty and impeding communities from accessing certain public policies that require land ownership. The communities are now working closely with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and land agencies to resolve their land issues.
• Identification of the need to have their own ‘Family School’ in their territory, which is an education system designed to answer for the needs of forested people, allowing young people to get quality education without leaving their communities. This school is going to be partially funded by the acai berry producers who are organizing themselves to have their acai berry production certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which will eventually increase their income, allowing them to use a share of this revenue to fund the Family School.

In addition to these, there are other less visible results of the protocol which are more difficult to measure, but that are the foundation of the changes that are happening in the territory. The Bailique communities are more informed about their rights as traditional communities and their rights as Brazilian citizens, they are more informed about national and international legislation and they are challenging local power structures that historically have been associated with local political parties and therefore paternalist approaches [ for the initial results see OELA Policy Brief Issue 1].

A house surrounded by native acai trees.
Credit: Paulo Santos/Acervo H

But more importantly, the process of constructing their community protocol has allowed them to become more empowered to define, decide, and act upon the development path they choose to follow, while becoming increasingly aware of the importance of conserving their local biodiversity and preserving their traditional ways of life.

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^[1] Since July 2016, the NGO OELA has become the main supportive institution in the process of the Bailique protocol, while GTA remains as an important partner.

You can contact Roberta on email: r.p.ramos@lse.ac.uk.

The views reflected here do not necessarily represent those of Natural Justice.

Natural Justice Hosted an Access and Benefit-Sharing Preparation Meeting with Khoi and San Communities Concerning Rooibos

Natural Justice’s Cape Town office hosted preparatory meetings with stakeholders to the Rooibos access and benefit-sharing agreement discussions. The stakeholders present included representatives from the Rooibos farming communities of Wupperthal and Niewoudtsville, the National Khoi-San Council and the San Council of South Africa.

The purpose of the meetings was to (i) Conduct Access and Benefit Sharing training, (ii) Engage in legal consultation with the stakeholders respective lawyers on the negotiations and (iii) to prepare the stakeholders for the broader access and benefit-sharing meeting with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Rooibos Industry, scheduled for the afternoon of the 31^st of August.  The opportunity was also used to discuss with the communities the development of a Biocultural Community Protocol on Rooibos.

The meetings commenced the morning of the 30^th of August and closed the afternoon of the 31^st of August. During the final session the stakeholders took the time to reflect and wrap up the discussions from the previous day, and they watched a short video introducing the concept of biocultural community protocols along with WIPO’s (World Intellectual Property Organization) resources around traditional knowledge.

The communities then met with the Rooibos Industry during the afternoon. This meeting was hosted and facilitated by the Department of Environmental Affairs at their Cape Town offices.

Melangkap Community Protocol

cc Harry Jonas, 2014

A group of five Melangkap villages presented their protocol on the 6th of September, 2014 in Sabah, Malaysia. These  communities have developed a one page protocol that requires anyone entering the broader community for any purpose to submit their intentions in writing, and to abide by local customary law. Those laws, customs, practices, their hopes and aspirations have also been documented and are contained in a secondary document.

At the meeting, there were cultural dances, a film highlighting the process produced by the community was shown, and signed copies of the protocol were handed by the traditional chief to the village headmen. In attendance were members of all five Melangkap communities, Sabah Biodiversity Centre, UNDP Small Grants Programme, BC Initiative and Natural Justice, among others. 

NJ Community Training for Chiadzwa Community Development Trust

From 10 to 12 February 2014, Natural Justice conducted initial training on biocultural community protocols with Chiadzwa Community Development Trust and members of the Marange and Arda Transsau, impacted by diamond mining in the region. 

During the training workshops, Trust and Community members discussed their visions for the future, their needs for development and what they would like to address in the development of a community protocol, as a tool to address the concerns the community has with respect to past and impending relocation, impacts on culture, the environment and poverty and as a starting point for dialogue with external parties.

Community Protocols in Malaysia

From 6-7 January,  Harry Jonas attended a two-day workshop hosted by University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) on the ‘Implementing Telecentre Programme Among Orang Asli in West Malaysia’ Project. 

Natural Justice has been asked by UNIMAS to assist it to integrate community protocols into the project as a means to ensure the equitable engagement between the researchers and the Orang Asli, who are Indigenous peoples living in West Malaysia. 

On the first day, participants heard reports back from the four clusters of villages in which the project will be focused. On the second day, Harry Jonas and Tariq Zaman focused on community protocols.  

The Paudhi Bhuinya Community, Odisha, India

On November 20th 2013 a workshop on Biocultural Community Protocols was held in Bhatuda village, Odisha, India. The workshop was organized by Jeevan Vikash in collaboration with HBS-Natural Justice. George Pyara Jojo from Jeevan Vikash and Kishore Kumar Patnaik from HBS-Natural Justice took part in the workshop. Around 85 villagers belonging to: the Paudi Bhuinya Community (PBC), other Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes of Bhatuda Panchayat, participated in the workshop. The villagers shared and discussed their cultural activities and livelihoods. These traditions have been practiced by PBC for generations, many consisting of unwritten ceremonies and other beliefs of their ancestral system. 

Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection

From 5-7 November, 30 pioneering community and civil society experts gathered in the !khwa ttu San community centre outside Cape Town, South Africa, for the first Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection. 

The Symposium, co-convened by Natural Justice and Namati, facilitated an exchange of best practices on community empowerment for strengthening land and natural resources rights among twelve African countries and more than two dozen communities. 

The event set out to meet three interrelated objectives: 

1. Share best practices, tools and strategies for empowered community land and natural resource management and protection; 

2. Support each other to confront local and/or national challenges to community land and natural resources claims; and 

3. Brainstorm new and innovative forms of legal empowerment and build a cross-disciplinary community of practice that fosters continued dialogue and learning. 

International Workshop on ICCAs in Thika, Kenya

On November 5th 2013, Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended and presented at an International Workshop on ICCAs in Thika, Kenya. The workshop was hosted by the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. Participants included representatives from community organisations from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. The workshop provided an excellent opportunity for the different organizations to share lessons from the ICCA-related work they are doing across the world. 

Maya Sikand gave a presentation on International Law and Policy Frameworks and ICCAs. Information about the various international mechanisms that exist was welcomed as just one tool of many to support and protect ICCAs. Different participants were able to connect the international frameworks to projects or developments in their own countries. For example, some had engaged with REDD+ or the Nagoya Protocol. Other participants came from countries that have put in place laws to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and have participated in the work of implementing these laws. This presentation was followed by a discussion led by Adam Hussein Adam on the national legal context for Kenya, taking much from his recent report on the legal context for Sacred Natural sites in Kenya. 

Rights-Based REDD+ Dialogue II: Realizing REDD+ Safeguards

Natural Justice together with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee hosted the Rights-Based REDD+ Dialogue II: Realizing REDD+ Safeguards, on 18-19th October 2013 in Cape Town South Africa. This was the second of such dialogues, the first was held in November 2012. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a mitigation policy under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The REDD+ safeguards are mechanisms designed to reduce identified risks and prevent undesirable outcomes of REDD+ and some also aim to enhance the positive environmental and social impacts of REDD+. 

REDD+ stakeholders from civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples, government, United Nations, and REDD+ project developers participated in the dialogues. The dialogues began discussing national REDD+ programmes in Southern and Central Africa, with a country focus on activities in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A REDD+ project session scrutinised existing REDD+ projects in Africa and heard a project developers perspective on REDD+. Indigenous Peoples engagement in REDD+ was explored and lessons from global case studies discussed. Strategies and tools to engage in REDD+ including the potential of Biocultural Community Protocols as a tool to enhance free, prior and informed consent were considered. The on-going World Bank Safeguards Review process was highlighted and its relevance to REDD+ examined. Governance issues were discussed with a focus on the role of independent monitoring. The final sessions explored ways to positively influence the REDD+ safeguards at the international level and discussed messages for the Warsaw Climate Change Conference UNFCCC COP19.

New Paper on Resource Conflict Prevention References Community Protocols

A new paper by the Quaker United Nations Office entitled "Building peace around water, land and food: Policy and practice for preventing conflict" highlights the fundamental importance of securing natural resources on which our survival and well-being depend in the face of climate change and increasing conflict and competition over resources. It also focuses on the need to strengthen peace-building skills among actors at all levels (including effective communication and engagement with decision-making processes and constructive dispute prevention and resolution) and cites relevant international instruments that can help prevent conflict through inclusive natural resource governance and management.

One of the case studies explored the development and use of a biocultural community protocol to negotiate community resource rights in the Potato Park in Peru. The paper also references Natural Justice's Biocultural Community Protocols: A toolkit for community facilitators and the 2012 special edition of the Participatory Learning and Action Journal on community protocols, rights and consent, which was co-edited by Natural Justice, among others (also available in Spanish). Please download and share this new paper here.

Indigenous Pollinators: Honey and Harmony

From the 25-26th of September one of Natural Justice’s partner organizations in Kenya, Kivulini Trust co-hosted an Indigenous Pollinators Network Workshop in Nairobi, together with the FAO and Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty.

The objective of the workshop was to establish a network of indigenous communities knowledgeable of and supportive towards pollinators. A similar workshop was held last month in India, where an Indigenous Pollinators Network has been formed. Through such a network communities can share best practices and provide support to each other. Another goal of the workshop was to create awareness of the many different pollinators that exist, and their importance.

What is a pollinator?

The workshop commenced with a presentation by pollination expert Dr. Mary Gikungu from the National Museums of Kenya on what is a pollinator? Most of us think only of bees – and honeybees at that – when we hear the word pollinator. In fact, honeybees account for only a tiny fraction of the pollinators that exist – there are many other species of bees, as well as birds, butterflies, bats and other insects that provide the world with essential pollination services. In case it has been a while since you took a biology class – pollinators are important because without them most plants would not be able to reproduce – which would mean no food, or other plant materials, so important for humans and the environment.

Learning about intellectual property, community protocols and ABS

A training for indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa on intellectual property, biocultural community protocols (BCPs) and access and benefit sharing (ABS) is taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from the 23rd to the 27th of September. The meeting is organized by the ABS Initiative, in collaboration with Natural Justice, the Indigenous Information Network, the Indigenous Peoples Coordination Committee of Africa and hosted by the African Union Commission.

Intellectual property protections, such as patents, are often placed over developments that have originated from the knowledge held by indigenous and local communities. Unfortunately, these communities rarely provide their consent for such actions nor are able to share in any benefits that emerge from the developments.

Therefore, African indigenous people and local community representatives have requested training on the intellectual property regime, its linkages with access and benefit sharing and tools, such as community protocols, that can be used to protect their knowledge.

During the week long training, participants will share information on patents, geographical indications, plant variety protections, trade marks, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and community protocols.

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Natural Justice partner works to alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity

Natural Justice attended the Annual General Meeting of Phyto-Trade Africa from the 29th to the 31st of July. During the 3-day meeting, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) met with Phyto-Trade members to discuss their strategies on collaborations with communities in the bio-trade industry.

Natural Justice has previously presented on its work with communities, particularly on biocultural community protocols and biocultural dialogues, which has assisted communities set out terms for engagement with biotrade companies. Natural Justice will also be collaborating with Phyto-Trade Africa and the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Initiative on a programme of work that will identify best practice examples of ABS in southern Africa.

Phyto-Trade Africa is a trade association of the natural product industry in Southern Africa with an aim to alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity in the region by developing an industry that is not only economically successful but also ethical and sustainable.

ABS and BCP Workshop in East London, South Africa

On 3 and 4 July 2013, the Department of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) unit of the Medical Research Council of South Africa held the third and final pilot workshop on the international legislative framework and the South African domestic laws relating to Access and Benefit-Sharing.  The workshop was held in East London with twenty-eight participants and six resource persons.  Laureen Manuel and Gino Cocchiaro of Natural Justice conducted the workshop, which included presentations, group discussions and role plays on biocultural community protocols (BCPs).  

Members of seven different communities from villages in Uitenhage, Grahamstown and Willowbridge, as well as two representatives from the Mokgola community in Zeerust, participated in the workshop. Some of the participants are traditional healers and others are engaged in the farming of various types of tea leaves.  

International and domestic law on Access and Benefit Sharing, specifically the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, and the Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit Sharing Regulations of South Africa were among the topics covered under the session on laws. 

The workshop concluded with participants readily taking part in the group discussions and role plays on BCPs, where they were required to engage with challenging questions about their own communities' visions for the future and their decision-making processes. 

The short report for the African BCP Initiative 2011-2012 can be found here.

African BCP Initiative meets in Kenya

On the 15^th of June 2013, Natural Justice held a meeting of the African BCP Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya with its Kenyan partners. Phase 2 of the African BCP Initiative has now begun and local partners took the opportunity to discuss their various project of work for 2013-2014. The meeting also heard from prominent human rights lawyer Korir Sing’Oei on the current discussions around the community land bill, Soikan Meitiaki of the Forest CarbonPartnership Facility on REDD+ in Kenya, Hjalmar Joffre-Eichorn a community based theatre expert on forum theatre in Kenya and Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Global Co-ordinator of the ICCA Consortium, on ICCA’s in Kenya. Natural Justice thanks all its Kenyan partners and presenters for participation in the meeting. The short report for the African BCP Initiative 2011-2012 can be found here.

ICCA Toolkit Now Available

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has recently released a new resource entitled "A Toolkit to Support Conservation by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities: Building capacity and sharing knowledge for Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs)". The toolkit documents sixteen case studies and a diverse set of innovative tools and approaches developed to help Indigenous peoples and local communities address critical challenges that affect their natural and cultural resources. The resources are organised around five key themes: documentation, management planning, monitoring and evaluation, communication, and finance and values. It also sets out tools to support the effectiveness and viability of ICCAs as governance structures for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. Our review of international law and jurisprudence, the Convention on Biological Diversity's Technical Series No. 64 on recognising and supporting ICCAs, and the toolkit and website on biocultural community protocols are highlighted as tools for legal empowerment and securing legal recognition.

In addition to UNEP-WCMC, the toolkit was developed with the support of and in collaboration with the UN Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme, the Government of Norway, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and the ICCA Consortium. It is available for download in English here.

Regional Workshop on awareness raiding and capacity-building to support the ABS mechanism under the Nagoya Protocol, Chengdu, China

Arpitha Kodiveri of Natural Justice attended the Regional Workshop on awareness raiding and capacity-building to support the ABS mechanism under the Nagoya Protocol held in Chengdu, China between the 15th- 17th of May,2013 which was organized by ICIMOD. The workshop sought to bring together regions concerned with issues of biodiversity conservation and traditional knowledge across the Hindu Kush Himalayan landscape. Key representatives from Pakistan, Bhutan, India, China, Nepal and Myanmar presented efforts in their countries to set up domestic legal frameworks to facilitate the process of access and equitable sharing of benefits as proposed by the Nagoya Protocol. 

Natural Justice Facilitates Biocultural Community Protocol Training for the Ogiek Community

On 17 April, Natural Justice facilitated a biocultural community protocol (BCP) training workshop for the Ogiek Community in Nakuru, Kenya.  Lack of recognition of their status as indigenous peoples, an increase in wildlife conservation and development in the region has caused displacement from their traditionally-owned lands.  The Community have brought their issues to the African Court on Human and People's Rights, with the African Court recently providing interim measures to stop the eviction of the Ogiek from the Mau Forest by the Government of Kenya.

The BCP training was attended by a variety of community members including women, youth, elders and the NGO supporting the community.  The development of the BCP will complement the Community's advocacy work within the region and will, amongst other things, highlight the community's history and customary laws and norms and rights at a local, regional and international level. See here for the interim measures. 

Report of the Second Meeting of the Asia Regional Initiative on BCPs Now Available

The report of the second meeting of the Asian Regional Initiative on Biocultural Community Protocols, held in Bangalore, India, from 18-20 February 2013, is now available. The meeting was attended by the existing Asian partners and new partners from India to discuss the potential for the growth of this initiative and the challenges faced by the existing partners in the past year. It also included many new partners from India discussing the importance and relevance of biocultural community protocols (BCPs), particularly vis-à-vis the environmental legal landscape in India. The report discusses the following broad thematic areas:

• The relevance of BCPs in the India context;
• To distinguish between BCPs and other tools used by communities;
• To examine the value addition of BCPs in asserting community rights over resources; and
• To see how organizations gathered can collaborate with Natural Justice and others. 

To read the full report, please click here.

ECCHR Workshop on Transnational Accountability

From 19-21 March in Manila, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended a workshop on judicial and quasi-judicial instruments for holding transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations. The workshop was organised by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) with the Philippine-Misereor Partnership and generously supported by Misereor and Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World).

As the final of a series of regional workshops held over the past 3 years, it aimed to address the problem of accountability of transnational corporations involved in grave human rights violations by jointly developing strategies for litigation for cases from the the mining, palm oil, and manufacturing sectors. It included practical considerations such as uncovering internal corporate structures, collecting evidence for proving cases in court, and dealing with power dynamics between lawyers and communities. Soft-law mechanisms such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Dispute Settlement Facility and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and community instruments such as biocultural community protocols were also discussed. Participants were primarily lawyers and non-profit organisations and networks from South East Asia, as well as legal experts from Europe, the U.S., and Latin America.

Holly would like to thank Jerbert, Clod, and Claudia for their meticulous organisation of the workshop and all of the participants and supporters for making it such a memorable experience.