New Namati Report on Community Land Registration

Namati, in partnership with the International Development Law Organization, the Sustainable Development Institute, Centro Terro Viva, and the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda, has released ‘Protecting Community Lands and Resources: Evidence from Liberia, Mozambique and Uganda.’ The report documents the experiences of 58 communities supported by the Community Land Titling Initiative with their nations’ community land registration laws. 

Through the process, communities succeeded in addressing land disputes, improved local governance, enhanced local conservation of natural resources, and strengthened the rights of women and other marginalised groups. Based on these lessons, the report concludes that community land registration efforts should include three processes: the technical work of mapping and titling community land, the peace-building process of resolving land disputes, and the establishment or strengthening of local governance mechanisms. Moving forward, Namati will use these lessons in strengthening its Community Land Protection Program. 

The report’s executive summary can be found here, and the full report can be downloaded here. The press release for the report launch can be accessed here and the study’s homepage can be found here. Those interested in the work are encouraged to join the Global Legal Empowerment Network here.

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Africa BCP Initiative Review in Wa, Ghana

Shea producers from Dafiama meeting with ABCPI
participants

The Natural Justice team was in Wa, Ghana for a review of the first phase of the Africa Biocultural Community Protocols Initiative (ABCPI) on 21-22 June. The meeting included a review of the lessons learned from the first year of the initiative. The review began with reflection by representatives from each of the communities who engaged in the Biocultural Community Protocol (BCP) process through the initiative. The representatives were also encouraged to reflect on the usefulness of ‘BCPs: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators’ and to propose amendments or additions. 

From Ghana, the community of Dafiama is preparing a BCP on Shea conservation and marketing and the community of Tanchara further developed and used for dialogue their BCP on local gold exploration and sacred sites. From Ethiopia, the community of Sheka Forest is developing a BCP asserting their right to steward the forest. In Kenya, the Maasai community of Ilkusemeti is preparing a BCP on land use, the Samburu community is extending their BCP on livestock keeping rights, and the communities of Lamu are demanding community inclusion in a major port development planning. In South Africa, the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners of Bushbuckridge are using their BCP to consider an access and benefit sharing (ABS) agreement with a cosmetics company. In Namibia, the community residing in Bwabata National Park is contemplating using a BCP to establish their right to reside and conserve the park. 

From the review, the representatives identified key issues in BCP development. They included having clear objectives, effective and representative community governance structures, engaging facilitators with existing trust relationships with the community and the ability to translate community values and practices to external actors, the importance of proactively and productively engaging with governments, the importance of including documentation throughout the process, and the need for meaningful legal support. 

Moving forward, the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa, a leading backer of the ABCPI, looked forward to supporting the communities represented and others in further developing and using BCPs. Natural Justice, and other participants, wish to thank the ABS Capacity Development Initative, the Open Society for Southern Africa, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Christensen Fund, and University of Cape Town's Open AIR project, for their generous support of the Initiative and its participant communities. Natural Justice also thanks the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), ETC COMPAS, and all other ABPCI participants.

Read about the Africa BCP Initiative here. Read the report on the inception meeting of the Initiative here. 

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MSP Review in Wa, Ghana

Shea butter production

The Natural Justice team was hosted by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) for a gathering in Wa, Ghana from 18-20 June for a review of the multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) and biocultural community protocols (BCPs) developed over the past year through the Africa BCP Initiative. The gathering began with a review of the BCPs in the process of being developed in the Africa BCP Initiative. These include BCPs in Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia and Kenya around gold mining, Shea nut conservation and production, pastoralism, land tenure, forest conservation, and traditional medicinal knowledge. Representatives from ETC Compas, GIZ and CIKOD, organisations which have supported the BCP Initiative, offered feedback on the BCP processes and results. 

The gathering then reviewed MSPs conducted in Tanchara, Ghana, around gold mining, and Lamu, Kenya, around major infrastructure developments. Participants in both MSPs presented the processes and results from their MSPs and received feedback from other members of the BCP Initiative. 

On the 20th, the group visited a traditional Shea nut producing community in Dafiama, Ghana which is in the process of developing a BCP. Shea pickers demonstrated the process by which Shea nuts are turned from nut to butter. The traditional leadership of the community shared their concern at the depletion of Shea trees and their enthusiasm for the BCP. It is hoped that the BCP will reduce the destruction of Shea trees from charcoal production and mining and increase the value that communities receive for the Shea that they have maintained and harvested.

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Major New Publication on Community Protocols, Rights and FPIC

Volume 65 of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), has just been released. Entitled "Biodiversity and Culture: Exploring community protocols, rights and consent", the special issue was guest edited by Krystyna Swiderska (IIED), Kanchi Kohli (Kalpavriksh), Harry Jonas and Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice), Wim Hiemstra, (COMPAS Network for Endogenous Development), and Maria Julia Oliva (Union for Ethical Biotrade).

This special issue of PLA explores two important participatory tools that indigenous peoples and local communities can use to help defend their customary rights to biocultural heritage, natural resources, and lands:  community protocols – or charters of rules and responsibilities – in which communities set out their customary rights to natural resources and land, as recognised in customary, national and international laws; and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) processes, in which communities decide whether or not to allow projects affecting their land or resources to go ahead, and on what terms.

The issue reviews the experiences of communities in Asia, Latin America, and Africa in developing and using these tools in a range of contexts. It also looks at some government experiences of establishing institutional processes for FPIC and benefit-sharing. It identifies practical lessons and guidance based on these experiences and aims to strengthen the capacity of a range of actors to support these rights-based tools effectively in practice. It aims to provide guidance for those implementing the Nagoya Protocol (amongst other international instruments) and other natural resource and development practitioners, and to raise awareness of the importance of community-designed and -controlled participatory processes.

Natural Justice and their partners contributed to 8 of the 17 articles. Five focused on biocultural community protocol processes amongst traditional health practitioners in Bushbuckridge, South Africa; livestock keepers in South Asia; sacred grove custodians in Upper West Region, Ghana; artisanal miners in Alto San Juan, Colombia; and indigenous communities in Ulu Papar, Sabah (Malaysia). Three of the articles explored methodologies and participatory approaches for facilitating biocultural community protocol processes, including in the context of biotrade in Peru and in multi-stakeholder processes in Ghana and Kenya.

The full publication can be downloaded for free here or hard copies are available upon request. Thanks to the Shuttleworth Foundation for supporting us as co-editors.

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Preparatory Meeting for CBD COP11 in Burundi

From 9-14 June, the African regional preparatory meeting for indigenous peoples and local communities for the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place in Bujumbura, Burundi. The meeting was co-hosted by the CBD Secretariat, the ABS Capacity Development Initiative, the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), and the Unissons-nous pour la Promotion des Batwa (UNIPROBA). The agenda of the meeting is available here.

The meeting contained specific capacity development sessions on Article 8(j) of the CBD, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), biocultural community protocols, and intellectual property rights. It also served as an opportunity for the 55 representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities from 21 African countries to strategize ahead of COP11, which will take place in October in Hyderabad, India. Gino Cocchiaro, Lassana Kone and Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) supported the meeting by holding a session on biocultural community protocols as well as co-facilitating a two-day training session on intellectual property rights and ABS.

In the meeting’s closing panel, which included Burundi's Minister of Environment, Water, Public Works and Urban Planning, Lucy Mulenkei (IIN) highlighted the importance of such meetings for indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa to be prepared for intergovernmental meetings. She also appealed directly to the Minister to lobby other African governments to pay more attention to environmental matters, to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, and to support indigenous peoples and local communities.  The Minister, in turn, expressed his government’s commitment to spare no efforts to support indigenous peoples and local communities in their struggles and to promote human rights in general and in particular those of indigenous peoples, including those of Burundi’s large local Batwa community. He ended the workshop with the words: "Long live international cooperation! Long live the CBD! Long live indigenous people! And long live Burundi!"

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"Seeds of Freedom"

A new film, "Seeds of Freedom", has been released by the Gaia Foundation and the African Biodiversity Network (ABN) along with GRAIN, Navdanya International and MELCA International. It is narrated by actor Jeremy Irons and features indigenous farmers from the ABN as well as interviews with Dr Vandana Shiva, Percy Schmeiser, Henk Hobbelink and Kumi Naidoo.

From seedsoffreedom.info, "Seeds of Freedom charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of traditional, diversity rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolise the global food system. The film highlights the extent to which the industrial agricultural system, and genetically modified (GM) seeds in particular, has impacted on the enormous agro -biodiversity evolved by farmers and communities around the world, since the beginning of agriculture."

More information can be found at seedsoffreedom.info. 

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Ashoka Globalizer

Harry Jonas attended the Ashoka Foundation's 6th Globalizer Summit in Geneva. The event focused on rural innovation and farming, and brought together a range of Ashoka Fellows and international advisors to focus on how the Fellows could scale their ideas to better support a range of rural communities and preserve biodiversity. The event included one-on-one sessions with successful entrepreneurs to focus on the critical questions facing Fellows as their ideas grow. Harry thanks Nihar Kothari, Philip Riddel, Biksham Gujja and Marc Castagnet for their invaluable advice, and particularly thanks the Ashoka RIF and Globalizer teams for an excellent few days.

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