Community Biocultural Protocols The Potato Park communities in
Peru are deeply committed to the conservation of biocultural
resources, associated knowledge, and indigenous rights, and
undertook this research to further investigate the role of
customary norms and institutions in the protection of
traditional knowledge (TK) and resources. The development of a
Biocultural Protocol, in the form of the Inter-community
Agreement for Equitable Access and Benefit Sharing, is the
result of their efforts. In addition to providing a valuable
example of effective community-based protection of TK and
genetic or biological resources in praxis, this initiative is
also one of only a handful of examples worldwide of working
models that stem directly from customary laws and norms. Given
the present international paucity of models that adequately
value and protect indigenous and local community rights,
biodiversity and customary norms and practices in relation to
benefit sharing and access to resources and knowledge – the
prese