Biocultural Community Protocols: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators

The document defines biocultural community protocols as participatory instruments used by Indigenous and local communities to document their customary laws, values, and decision-making processes. These protocols aim to bridge the gap between community worldviews and external actors—such as governments and companies—to prevent resource exploitation and ensure the respect of customary stewardship. The toolkit outlines a four-part process: understanding the community, documenting the protocol, using it for engagement, and reflecting on outcomes. It provides a wide array of participatory tools, including community sketch maps, trend line analysis, and participatory theatre, to empower communities through legal awareness and social mobilization.

• Biocultural community protocols are developed by self-defined communities to ensure external actors respect their "customary laws, values, and decision-making processes", particularly regarding the stewardship of their territories.
• Communities often develop these protocols as a defensive response to external threats, such as "land and resource acquisition for external gains", including clear-cut logging, mining, and large-scale aquaculture.
• The toolkit identifies a conflict between the "legal fragmentation" of government laws, which compartmentalize the environment, and the integrated view held by Indigenous and local communities.
• Protocols can be used proactively to invite collaboration or defensively to "call on external actors to cease harmful activities" and seek redress for past injustices.
• The process of creating a protocol is intended to be "endogenous", meaning it is initiated and controlled from within the community to harness local resources and retain benefits locally.
• Facilitators are cautioned that protocols are not a panacea and may have limitations, such as the risk of "elite capture" where a small influential group protects their own interests.
• Legal empowerment is a core component of the process, based on the principle that "law should not remain a monopoly of trained professionals" and that dialogue is often more effective than formal legal processes.
• The toolkit suggests specific participatory tools for resource management, such as "Community Biodiversity Registers" to document biological resources and assert rights over associated traditional knowledge.
• Participatory theatre, including "Forum Theatre" and "Legislative Theatre", is recommended as a tool to explore power imbalances and submit legal reports for legislative change.
• Monitoring and evaluation are framed as continuous self-reflection processes to assess trends in "social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic indicators over time".

APA

Natural Justice (n.d.). Biocultural Community Protocols: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BCP-Toolkit-Part-I.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Biocultural Community Protocols: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators. n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BCP-Toolkit-Part-I.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=Biocultural Community Protocols: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BCP-Toolkit-Part-I.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljusticendbiocultural, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Biocultural Community Protocols: A Toolkit for Community Facilitators}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BCP-Toolkit-Part-I.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }