The Institutionalisation of Bioculturalism through Community Protocols: The Case of Guna Yala

Abstract

Community Biocultural Protocols (CBPs) are environmental governance mechanisms for biodiversity that aim to establish, at the local community level, a normative framework for the central themes discussed in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (biodiversity conservation, traditional knowledge, prior and informed access, benefit sharing, agro-biodiversity conservation, etc.). This article aims to shed light on the local implementation of this type of protocol in the Indigenous territory of Guna Yala (Panama). It allows us to place the specific mechanism of the CBPs in the long history of the Gunadulegan with regard to relations with scientific circles and the question of the coupling between biological and cultural diversity. It is also an opportunity to contribute to a reflection on the institutionalisation of the idea of bioculturalism.