Derechos bioculturales

Biocultural rights are the set of collective rights that indigenous peoples and local communities need to maintain –if they so wish– their custodial relationship with nature. This set of rights necessary to enable them to have secure access to and use of their lands and waters, the possibility of conserving their cultural, linguistic and social practices, and the possibility of self- determining their local rules and institutions, has been conceived based on the interpretation of international environmental law and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Courts, as a set of rights with a dual foundation: protecting both the interests of indigenous peoples and local communities and those of nature. Therefore, they are materialized through two dimensions: as rights to the environment and as duties of protection towards the environment. This essay briefly describes the theoretical development of biocultural rights and analyses their legal foundations and the consequences of their being justified by two different sets of interests. This dual rationale will be critically analysed, paying attention to the consequences of being grounded in two sets of interest holders and drawing different conclusions for indigenous peoples –indigenous rights holders– and for local communities –who are not recognised under international law as holders of rights that are not directly related to the protection of nature or environmentally relevant practices.