active · Climate· Governance

F.a: Developing biocultural community protocols in Community Forestry in Nepal

Within the project members of five community forestry communities will be trained on the national and international legal context of biocultural community protocols. The same communities will document their biocultural life-heritage, develop biocultural co mmunity protocols and organize local campaigns to demand bio-cultural rights. Representatives of FECOFUN and local communities will participate in the meetings of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to share the experiences related to the community p rotocols. Individual biocultural community protocols will be published at local level. In addition, FECOFUN will publish an evaluation report on the state of biocultural rights of local and indigenous communities to be shared at international fora. The bio cultural rights of the indigenous and local communities have been recognized in many international human rights and biodiversity instruments, but because of the reluctance of the Nepalese government, they are not implemented. Community forestry plans based on the National Forest Act emphasize technical standards rather than rights, so it is necessary to produce separate biocultural protocols. At Community level knowledge of international instruments such as the UN Biodiversity Agreement is weak, so it is ne cessary to increase it. Communities also need stronger campaigning capacity for biocultural rights to be included in forest management plans and forestry legislation. As a result of the project, the awareness of biocultural rights of local communities is e xpected to grow, the communities' biocultural life heritage will be documented and biocultural protocols will be drafted, government and other actors will recognize the community's cultural rights and the campaigning capacity of the community will be stren gthened to defend the rights. FECOFUN and local community representatives will be able to effectively participate in national and international forums and share the publication with wider audiences. The beneficiaries of the project are the members of the s elected five Community Forestry Groups in the following districts: Bardiya (Tharu People, Khata Corridor), Sunsari (peasants, Ramdhuni Cultural Forest), Kathmandu (Tamang people, Shandong National Park Buffer Zone), Rasuwa / Nuwakot (Tamang People, Lantang National Park Buffer Zone), Dhading / Gorkha (various populations, Community Forest adjacent to the Budigandaki hydropower project). 'Biocultural Rights' is a concept related to the international