News | 31 January, Kenya.- The international Workshop on Advancing Rights and Equity in the implementation of Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework was held today to discuss and establish a roadmap to provide support for more equitable governance and respect for rights in area-based conservation.
The workshop, which takes place from 31 January to 3 February in Nanyuki, addresses address human rights, including the application of human rights-based approaches and with particular attention to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
This Rights and Equity Workshop is a multistakeholder initiative, facilitated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and co-organized by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), the Specialist Group on Governance, Equity and Rights in IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN WCPA), the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (IUCN CEESP), the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), the IUCN Protected and Conserved Areas Team, IMPACT Kenya and the ICCA Consortium, with funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Arcadia Fund.
Rights and Equity for lands, waters and seas conservation
The adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets a unique opportunity to build understanding about how equity can be advanced and human rights can be respected in protected and conserved areas.
Specifically, target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework calls parties to expand protected biodiversity areas up to 30% by 2030 through different area-based conservation “pathways”, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including over their traditional territories.
The expansion of area-based conservation risks further negative impacts on the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples and of local communities, if implementation does not comply with both the “equitably governed” and “recognizing and respecting rights” language in Target 3.
Furthermore, important new language on human rights, and on recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities’ offers opportunity to provide guidance on how human rights link to conservation.
The inclusion of ‘indigenous and traditional territories’ allows new forms of engagement with indigenous peoples and with community conservation, advancing recognition of these territories as part of the solution to biodiversity loss.
The rights and equity workshop will focus on the following key topics:
- Generating a shared understanding of equitable governance and respect for rights in the context of Target 3 and scoping out strategies to deliver on these at scale;
- Recognizing how Indigenous and traditional territories can support or link to recognizing rights and achieving greater equity; and
- Applying a human rights-based approach, as called for in the GBF.
The workshop is expected to provide:
- A roadmap for addressing identified needs and gaps to improving equity and strengthen respect for rights in area-based conservation;
- An updated framework for understanding the constituent elements of ‘equitable governance’ across different protected and conserved area types; and
- A guidance paper on applying a human-rights based approach to area-based conservation.