Community involvement

How the community benefits from a project, including data!

In addition to the methodology for proof of biodiversity, projects need to show that they have a fair and equitable way of distributing project funds to the actual individuals on the ground. The technology for funds disbursement must have safeguards against corruption and eliminate middlemen and other potential diversions or dilutions of funds from the people who are actually preserving the ecosystem. The methodology is designed to preserve endemic biodiversity by enabling Indigenous communities to become stewards of the ecosystem and deploying small farmers relying on traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles to conserve the jungle and monitor for indicator species.

Finally, BCPs must show a plan for equitable distribution of access to, ownership of, and crediting for data from the project including promotional materials, project data about ecosystems and biodiversity, video and photographic data, and photographs of participants with IP and LC communities involved using FAIR and CARE guidelines (Carroll et al., 2021).

Many projects are the collaboration of public and private parties with IP and LCs. For projects which have public funding (eg. a UNESCO World Heritage site) and a local community involved (i.e. fishing villages protecting and surrounding the site). All parties, their motivation, and funding sources must be clearly identified.