Principles for inclusive nature action

They draw on the principles for locally led adaptation and on the Shandia Principles (PDF), developed by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, as well as the outcomes of discussions during the conference. They are also in line with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Gender Plan of Action.

“These principles challenge us to rethink how we fund, design and deliver climate and biodiversity solutions," said UK Minister for Nature Mary Creagh, speaking at NYC Climate Week on 23 September 2025.

"They call for structural change – like securing land rights, strengthening local leadership and weaving Indigenous knowledge into policy and practice. They also call on us as funders to be more flexible, patient and adaptative, and most crucially, for us all to ensure that the rights and security of environmental defenders – often Indigenous Peoples and local communities and very often women – are safeguarded.”

The principles

1. Recognise and respect rights

Recognise, acknowledge and advance the rights, knowledge and capabilities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and people of African descent (PDF), especially women and youth as essential partners for reversing biodiversity loss, combating climate change and achieving sustainable development.

Accept the universality of human rights while at the same time recognising the characteristics and needs of specific groups and the particular rights, including customary rights, arising in those contexts.

Adopt policies and procedures to ensure that rights are respected, protected and fulfilled and implement these in a coordinated and holistic manner across operations at all levels, avoiding trade-offs.

2. Devolve decision making and strengthen local leadership

Ensure that local organisations and groups, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities and people of African descent, have increased voice and decision-making power over how biodiversity protection, restoration and sustainable use interventions are prioritised, designed, implemented and evaluated.

Build the capacity of local organisations and groups, particularly those led by women and other under-represented groups, to ensure they have the resources, decision-making power, and autonomy to generate durable, place-based solutions, and lead impactful biodiversity initiatives over the long term. 

Recognise the contributions and achievements of local organisations and groups, particularly those led by women and other under-represented groups, including in formal national and international reporting.

3. Recognise and address structural and intersectional inequalities

Recognise and address the intersectional gender, racial and other characteristics that are often the root causes of structural social and economic inequalities. Integrate these considerations into the mainstream of biodiversity action to ensure equitable access to the resources and benefits that are generated. 

Actively create and sustain environments and mechanisms for inclusive, effective and gender-responsive participation, leadership, decision-making and feedback. Engage with dominant actors that may inadvertently reinforce inequalities, and proactively dismantle the structural barriers to positive change.

4. Encourage flexible, adaptive biodiversity programming

Encourage flexible, adaptive, gender-responsive and locally-driven biodiversity management and programming to facilitate local leadership, as well as to address and respond to the inherent uncertainty of biodiversity under a changing climate, and to recognise and adapt to diverse ecological and cultural contexts.

Support local leadership by making the processes of designing, and delivering programmes more streamlined, simple and transparent, ensuring mutual accountability between local stakeholders and donors or intermediaries. Ensure that programme decision making is shared, inclusive and gender-responsive. 

5. Provide direct, patient, flexible, predictable and accessible funding

Ensure the provision of adequate, direct, transparent, gender-responsive funding – including core support – for long-term biodiversity protection, restoration and sustainable management.

Provide longer-term, predictable funding to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, people of African descent, women and youth groups, with a focus on supporting sustainable outcomes rather than short-term results.

Funders and intermediaries should be prepared and supported to hold risk, take a holistic and cross-sectoral approach, and invest in strengthening capacity at all levels.

6. Recognise the mutual value of scientific, and local and traditional knowledge

Build a robust understanding of biodiversity risks, opportunities, uncertainties and definitions of success through a combination of different forms and sources of knowledge.

Recognise and protect the leadership of women from Indigenous Peoples and local communities and people of African descent in safeguarding intergenerational traditional or ancestral knowledge that sustains biodiversity.

Prioritise the protection, intergenerational transfer and application of this knowledge for future use to enable societal and ecological resilience under a planetary crisis.

7. Promote collaborative and coherent action and investment

Encourage inclusive collaboration between stakeholders across sectors, to ensure that different initiatives and sources of funding complement and support, rather than duplicate each other and allow for greater reach.

Prioritise partnerships that amplify the leadership of local actors, particularly women and underrepresented groups, and ensure that their priorities and knowledge drive collaborative action.

States should adopt a co-ordinated ‘whole-of-government’ approach across the environmental challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change and desertification, as well as finance, trade, investment, agriculture, development and human rights.

8. Safeguard local actors, beyond ‘do no harm’

Go beyond harm prevention by actively promoting the realisation of human rights and the well-being and resilience of local actors, especially Indigenous Peoples and local communities and people of African descent, women and youth. Create enabling environments that support their leadership and agency.

Take proactive action to protect local stakeholders – including environmental defenders – from harm, including gender-based violence and actions which undermine their agency or cause further marginalisation.

IIED contact

The principles have been co-developed by individuals from multiple organisations across the globe, including IIED. In IIED, contact principal researcher Dilys Roe ([email protected]) for more information.