• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Dimensions of Diversity
• Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and the Convention on Biodiversity
• From Policy to Implementation?
• Executive Summary of COP5 Decisions
• Executive Summary of COP6 DecisionsReferences

Subsidiary Agreements:

• Protocols . A protocol is a legally binding supplementary agreement which addresses a specific area of a Convention. In the case of the CBD the potential creation of protocols is provided for under Article 28. Thus, COP2 established an Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group to develop a draft Protocol on Biosafety which, following two sessions of an Extraordinary Meeting of the Conference of Parties (EM-1), was opened for signature at COP5. The Protocol is open both to parties and non-parties to the Convention, and constitutes a legally binding international instrument in its own right.

The Extraordinary meeting also established an Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which exists to facilitate the first meeting of the Parties to the protocol at which point it will be dissolved. As this suggests, Protocols are independent and legally binding processes with their own dynamics. They are linked into the framework of a wider international agreement such as the Convention on Biodiversity.

The possibility to promote the creation of Protocols under the Convention, for example, on forest biodiversity or sustainable use, has yet to be fully explored by indigenous peoples organisations and partner organisations.