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This submission by Natural Justice to the UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights details the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa. It highlights how environmental shifts and land-use changes threaten bio-cultural resources and traditional knowledge, while presenting 'Community Protocols' as a tool for adaptation and the protection of cultural rights. The document also outlines the severe risks faced by cultural and environmental rights defenders in Africa, including violence, criminalization, and land grabbing.

The Ogiek Bio-Cultural Community Protocol (BCP), published by Natural Justice in 2015, is a community-determined document outlining the rights, traditional knowledge, and resource management priorities of the Ogiek people, an indigenous hunter-gatherer group in Kenya. The protocol serves as a tool to safeguard their ancestral lands in the Mau Forest Complex and Mount Elgon, establishing terms for access to their traditional knowledge and the equitable sharing of benefits arising from their resources.