Biodiversity and culture: exploring community protocols, rights and consent

Community protocols and free, prior informed consent: overview and lessons learnt Krystyna Swiderska with Angela Milligan, Kanchi Kohli, Holly Shrumm, Harry Jonas, Wim Hiemstra and María Julia Oliva In this overview article to the issue, the guest editors begin by setting the scene, explaining how loss of biological and cultural diversity is threatening the livelihoods and biocultural heritage of indigenous peoples and local communities (ILCs). They explore the role of community protocols (CPs) and free, prior informed consent (FPIC) in helping ILCs to defend their heritage and assert their rights over resources and traditional knowledge. They emphasise the importance of communitylevel participatory processes in the development of CPs and FPIC, and highlight the dangers of using these tools in a top-down, mechanistic way. They then consider recent changes in international law that have given CPs and FPIC official support. Next, they turn to this special