**2. Traditional ecological customary law: the concept, connotation, and property**

Legal philosophers have identified three pillars of legal administration since the time of Aristotle in ancient Greece: natural law (universal moral principles), customary law (unwritten law that people bound by it believe binding), and positive law (written law, statutory law) [15]. A conventional social norm is customary law. To comprehend customary law, we must first comprehend the concept of a custom. According to the Osborne Concise Law Dictionary, a custom is a "norm of behavior, binding to those within its domain, established by repeated practice." To be valid, these conventions must be old, well-established, and reasonable. Although it may deviate from the common law, it is required and does not contradict written law. There are two types of customs: general and specific [16]. Customary law is based on custom, and the Oxford Law Dictionary defines it as follows: "When some custom, custom, and common practice has been established in a significant part of the country, it is recognized and regarded as legally binding. They can rightfully be called customary law because they are based on written legislative rules" [17]. "Customs considered as legal requirements or required standards of behaviour," according to Black's Law Dictionary. This type of behavior and beliefs are recognized as law since they are such an important and integral aspect of the social and economic structure [18]. Traditional ecological customary law is a type of customary law and the guidelines formed in traditional national society for dealing with the relationship with the natural environment. This customary law is particularly significant in resource management and environmental preservation [19]. Traditional societies are not born with the ability to live in harmony with nature. According to anthropology, it is shaped by man's close relationship with nature [20]. This relationship also involves sociocultural, religious, and belief aspects [21]. Customary law, which controls procedures for the interaction, conservation, conservation, and usage of natural resources, demonstrates these relationships [22]. Due to these qualities, traditional ecological customary law has increasingly attracted the attention of important international treaties, such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Currently, the international academic community does not seek a separate definition of traditional ecological customary law. Still, it conducts research on the concept of customary law or traditional knowledge as a whole. However, since such customary law has unique value and effect on protecting the ecological environment, it is necessary to define its concept clearly and clearly.

This article argues that traditional ecological customary laws governing biological diversity genetic resources encompass not only traditional beliefs and codes of conduct for the direct conservation of animals and plants, but also the classification, storage, efficient use, integrated management, promotion of genetic resources, and the development of traditional knowledge and technical techniques. In other words, traditional ecological customary law is not a single conservation norm for biodiversity genetic resources but a complex governance structure.

The connotation of traditional ecological customary law is twofold: one is the general level, that is, in the macro concept of ecological environmental conservation, traditional ecological customary law that can be valuable for ecosystem maintenance and natural resource conservation and sustainable use; the second is specific level, under the specific framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, traditional ecological customary laws that play a role in the access and benefit sharing of genetic resources and their associated traditional knowledge.

When the broad scope of ecological conservation is combined with the specific context of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the nature of traditional ecological customary law takes on four dimensions. One is cultural characteristics. Traditional ecological customary law is a cultural phenomenon developed by traditional national societies according to their particular social history, beliefs, habits, and social norms, which is a dynamic cultural accumulation and development process. As a result, traditional ecological customary law will also adhere to traditional nationality. The cultural changes in society have evolved, and in response to the changes, new components have been updated and developed regularly. The second characteristic is ecological. Traditional ecological customary law is a collection of ecological knowledge systems developed through long-term interaction between traditional national societies and their natural environment and ecological system. It is a process of ecological knowledge accumulation. Similarly, traditional ecological customary law will alter in response to changes in the traditional ethnic society's ecological system, natural environment, and climatic circumstances. It will actively adapt to these changes in the ecological environment. The final category is national characteristics. Certain traditional national societies refuse to recognize the concept of "customary law" derived from Western jurisprudence and legal system, believing that the term "customary law" and its related definitions in English may imply a degree of denigration of their own legal system and a transformation into a common law vassal state. Because the majority of these traditional national societies are located in Western countries' former colonies, they believe that "customary law" is a legacy of Western countries' colony and postcolonial legal systems, and they regard traditional national social cultures and legal systems as "primitive" in comparison to Western legal principles and therefore as illogical and unjust as common law subordination. Indeed, not all traditional national social laws are based on customary law; they may also be based on written, positive, or natural laws. The phrase "customary law" does not encompass all legal systems prevalent in traditional national societies. National social law in its traditional form is a "law of life," including not only the exterior laws of life, but also the internal realities of existence. This legal system is based on the natural environment and ecosystem in which the traditional national society lives and develops into an integral part of its national culture and traditional knowledge, which in turn objectively protects the local natural environment and ecosystem, providing the traditional national society with the means to achieve sustainable life. The fourth is the right trait. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity's purpose of "conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and equitable and equitable sharing of benefits resulting from genetic resource usage." In particular, under the Nagoya Protocol's special requirement that each party shall consider indigenous peoples' and local communities' customary laws when implementing the Protocol, traditional

*Traditional Ecological Customary Law for Conservation and Sustainability in Biodiversity DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105918*

ecological customary laws acquire the status of rights and transform into the traditional national society's role in genetic resources and local communities. It is one of the critical mechanisms for safeguarding its own rights and interests in the process of access and benefit sharing (ABS) associated with traditional information, becoming an integral part of constructing a particular system for traditional knowledge.
