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Tel: 015 795 5970

Cell: 082 940 0651

Email: info”at”bushveldconnections.co.za za

Project Management

Bio-cultural Protocol Development

A Bio-cultural protocol is a document that outlines who a specific sector of the community is, what is their purpose, their needs, the legal rights and their positions within the greater community.

In 2009, Kruger to Canyon Biosphere, together with a legal rights based NGO - Natural Justice, initiated the development of a Bio-cultural Protocol (BCP) with the Traditional Health Practitioners of Bushbuckridge.

The concept behind the BCP, and specifically with the Traditional Health Practitioners would be to outline:

Their contribution to the health of their communities;
Their traditional knowledge;
How they connect their communities via their culture to their biodiversity;
The threats to their livelihood posed by biodiversity loss and the taking of their traditional knowledge without the sharing of benefits;
How they want to improve conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants; and
Information for people wanting to access their traditional knowledge and medicinal plants.

Debby was awarded the contract as Project Manager at the time and was funded by the German Government’s development agency previously known as DED.

The project was run over a period just over a year and during this time a number of achievements were obtained:

The THP’s have been assisted and guided into the forming of a united organisations known as the Traditional Health Practitioners of Bushbuckridge. Apart from them now being able to deal with obstacles and situations together, this has also encouraged the sharing of traditional knowledge amongst each other which has never previously been done before.
A number of public participation processes were held to enable them to draw up their own Bio-cultural protocol which stands to protect them and their traditional knowledge as is required with the new Bio-prospecting Act brought into play in 2008/9.

In addition to the development of the BCP a detailed “lessons learnt” document was also drawn up in order to assist other organisations, regions or community sectors wanting to undergo a similar process.

There are a number of projects that are following on from the development of this BCP that Debby is currently involved in. This include:

The linking of the THP committee to a local cosmetic producer with the intention of producing a new product that will be used as a demonstration project as to how the BCP works and benefits the community
Addressing the needs and issues raised during the development of hte BCP which includes access to medicinal plant species