Advancing rights and equity in area-based conservation
IIED co-convened an international workshop in Nanyuki, Kenya, to advance rights and equity in area-based conservation. The results include a global road map detailing priority areas for action and guidance documents on equitable governance, human-rights based approaches and Indigenous and traditional territories.

A person from Calleria the Indigenous community managing a forest in the Peruvian Amazon (Photo: Juan Carlos Huayllapuma/CIFOR, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
With the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities were centred in biodiversity policy in a groundbreaking way.
The entire framework commits to adopting a human rights-based approach and highlights the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in specific targets. For example, Target 3 (the so-called ‘30x30 target’) insists that the expansion of areas recognised as conserved happens “respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local community, including over their traditional territories”.
It also recognises that these territories can be, themselves, part of the answer for how to expand conservation. The target also states that protected and conserved areas should be “equitably governed”.
Tackling rights and equitable governance across conservation areas
The Nanyuki workshop sought to address how rights and equitable governance can be addressed across all conservation areas.
It involved a wide range of partners, including IUCN and two of its commissions (the World Commission on Protected Areas, and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy), the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, the ICCA Consortium, IMPACT Kenya and the Forest Peoples Programme. The aim of this highly collaborative approach was to ensure a diversity of perspectives and voices in the room.
The workshop brought together 47 people from 24 countries, working in two languages throughout the workshop. Individuals represented Indigenous Peoples’ networks and organisations from across Asia, Latin America and Africa, human rights organisations specialising in land and resource rights, conservation organisation staff from global policy teams and from specific protected area sites, community conservation initiatives, UN agencies (both CBD and UNEP), major conservation funders and advocacy groups.
The workshop reviewed opportunities to advance the recognition of rights and advance equity in area-based conservation, across different contexts and models and with specific reference to the global biodiversity framework.
The workshop established a broad-based roadmap of potential and committed actions. This identifies key arenas for action, including financing , discourse change and improving redress where things go wrong.
The workshop report details significant commitments to advance rights and equity in the work being done by co-convening organisations and other participants across these action areas. The workshop also served as a sounding board to inform more in-depth analysis and guidance on three key, interrelated approaches to area-based conservation:
- Equitable governance (PDF)
- Human rights-based approaches, and
- Indigenous and traditional territories.
Publications
Advancing human rights-based approaches to Target 3 Implementation (PDF), HRBWG et al. (2024), working paper
Road map for advancing rights and equity in conservation, IUCN, WCPA/CEESP Taskforce on Protected Areas, Equity and Livelihoods, IIED, ICCA Consortium, IMPACT Kenya, IIFB, Forest Peoples Program (2024)
Advancing equitable governance in area-based conservation, Phil Franks, Jessica Blythe, Jessica Campese, Neil Dawson, Georgina Gurney, Barbara Lassen, Adrian Martin, Medard Twinamatsiko, Helen Tugendhat (2024), IUCN WCPA issues paper
Further reading and resources
Respecting the rights and leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in realizing global goals, Helen Tugendhat, Ameyali Ramos Castillo, Viviana Elsa Figueroa, Aquilas Koko Ngomo, Jennifer Corpuz, Holly Jonas, Milka Chepkorir (2023), Cambridge University Press
Unpacking the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Agreement: Identifying key advances and making them work, Helen Tugendhat and Maurizio Farhan Ferrari (2023), Forest Peoples Programme
Blog: Achieving 30x30: supporting Indigenous and traditional territories and cultures, Krystyna Swiderska (July 2023)
Blog: The 30x30 target: more opportunity, less threat than expected?, Orla Corbisiero, Phil Franks (February 2023)
Contact
Barbara Lassen, senior researcher (conservation, communities and equity), IIED's Natural Resources research group