Biocultural Rights, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

Fabien Girard is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France, and also a former Research Fellow, Maison Française d’Oxford (MFO), UK. He is the co-editor of The Commons, Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research (2018). Ingrid Hall is an Associate Professor of anthropology at the University of Montréal, Canada, and an associate member of the Unité mixte de recherché Savoirs, Environnements, Sociétés (UMR SENS), France. She is the co-editor of Savoirs Locaux en Situation (2019). Christine Frison is an FNRS Post-Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Legal Sciences of the UCLouvain, Belgium. Her latest books are The Commons, Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research (2018) and Redesigning the Global Seed Commons (2018).

• 1. Community Protocols and Biocultural Rights: Unravelling the Biocultural Nexus in ABS Part 1. Conceptual Insights: Biocultural Diversity, Biocultural Rights and Space Making 2. A Biocultural Ethics Approach to Biocultural Rights: Exploring Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships through Ethics Initiatives in Canada 3. Sumaq kawsay (Good Living) and Indigenous Potatoes: On the Delicate Exercise of Ontological Diplomacy 4. Unmaking the Nature/Culture Divide: The Ontological Diplomacy of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities at the CBD 5. From Obstruction to Decolonization? Contested Sovereignty, the Seed Treaty, and Biocultural Rights in the U.S./Turtle Island and Beyond 6. The Legal Framework Behind Biocultural Rights: An Analysis of their Pros and Cons for Indigenous Peoples and for Local Communities Part 2. Biocultural Community Protocols, Access and Benefit-Sharing and Beyond 7. Community Protocols as Tools for Collective Action beyond Legal Pluralism – the Case of Tracks in the Salt 8. Biocultural Rights and Protocols in the Pacific 9. The Khoikhoi Community’s Biocultural Rights Journey with Rooibos 10. Biocultural Community Protocols and Boundary Work in Madagascar: Enrolling Actors in the Messy World(s) of Global Biodiversity Conservation Part 3. Biocultural Jurisprudence, Sovereignty and Legal Subjectivity 11. Biocultural Community Protocols and the Ethic of Stewardship: The Sovereign Stewards of Biodiversity 12. Concluding Thoughts: Biocultural Jurisprudence in Hindsight: Lessons for the Way Forward

"This is a timely, comprehensive contribution to the literature and practice at the nexus of international environmental law and human rights, that boldly addresses critical questions on the sovereignty and stewardship of biodiversity across a broad range of regional perspectives."Elisa Morgera, Professor of Global Environmental Law, University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, United Kingdom"Environmental jurisprudence over the last two decades has been radically transformed. This epistemic shift is symbolized by the waning of the ideas of ownership and the ascent ideas of stewardship when it comes to lands and waters. The shift has been the result of a growing realization that the dominant discourse of private property has played a key role in the collapse of ecosystems and changing climate. Confronted with the existential question of survival of our species, communities, activists and academics have begun to ask ontological questions regarding the nature of the juridical subject. Specifically, what does it mean to be human and what is our relationship to the natural world. The book you have in your hands is a glorious map of stories, histories and analyses of what is arguably the most critical conversation of the Anthropocene. It consists of riveting essays by some of the best contemporary cartographers of political ecology. It is metacognition at its finest and I urge you to read it and let it transform you."Sanjay Kabir Bavikatte, Co-founder of Natural Justice, Lawyers for Communities and the Environment and author of Stewarding the Earth: Rethinking Property and the Emergence of Biocultural Rights"In the late 1980s, Darrell Posey and others made the world aware of the inextricable link between biological and cultural diversity. This suggested the possibility of new legal and ethical frameworks, and broad-based actions especially at local level. This exceptional volume builds on Dr Posey’s visionary work, showcasing the latest thinking on 'bioculturalism', an issue whose positive resolution all of us has a major stake in."Dr Graham Dutfield, Professor of International Governance, University of Leeds, United Kingdom