The international community is trying to fight the current pattern of biodiversity erosion. In recent years, local and indigenous communities have been recognized as models in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Some of them have been recreating, expressing and transmitting knowledge and natural resources management practices for centuries. In 2003, the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereinafter "ICH Convention") was adopted in order to preserve this heritage, which is also on the verge of disappearing due to acculturation, globalization, deforestation, etc. Despite the interdependent relationship which characterizes certain elements of intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter "ICH") with the natural material elements associated to it, the Convention does not guide its Parties towards the recognition and preservation of this unique relationship. More specifically, it does not guide them towards the conservation and sustainable use of the elements of biodiversity that are necessary to the safeguarding of ICH (considered as a network of life). This is why, some might question the capacity of the ICH Convention to safeguard ICH associated with biodiversity? At a time when species and tradition knowledge and practices are going extinct, it is essential to refine the implementation of the Convention by a revision of its Operational Directives responsible for specifying the commitments of the Partiesand which are regularly amended by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of ICH and the General Assemble of State Parties to the Conventiontowards a better suited safeguarding of ICH associated with biodiversity. The ecosystem approach developed for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (hereinafter "CBD")whose objectives are the conservation, sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits obtained from the use of natural resourcesis the basis for this proposal to revise the Operation Directives of the ICH Convention. This approach allows the sustainable management of ecosystems considered as being networks of life including humans and their biodiversity. v
Table des matièresRésumé .