Conservation standards: from rights to responsibilities

Although conservation interventions aim to protect biological and cultural diversity, they can affect communities in a number of ways. The vast body of international law, norms and standards protecting human rights offers little rights-based, practical guidance for conservation initiatives. Focusing on indigenous peoples, this paper aims to provide a set of draft conservation standards that outline:

• how indigenous peoples’ rights are enshrined in~international law~• how conservation interventions can infringe these rights~• the rights conservation actors need to be most aware of — and why — and~• conservation actors’ responsibilities in upholding these~rights.

The aim of this paper is to encourage discussion and collect feedback. We look forward to continuing to develop these conservation standards.