Rights-Based Conservation: The path to preserving Earth's biological and cultural diversity?

Initiative, Rights and Resources

doi:10.53892/zikj2998

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 109 publications

(165 reference statements)

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“…Across 10 high conservation priority countries, 49 percent of the combined area is claimed by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples, while only 8 percent has been legally recognized. 32 And across 31 countries holding almost 70 percent of tropical forests, only half of the total area traditionally held by these groups was legally recognized as of 2021. 33 Given the minimum global land area estimated to meet climate commitments 34 and safeguard biodiversity, the risk of infringements on communities' lands and livelihoods will only increase in the absence of secure tenure rights.…”

Section: Challenges To Realizing Rights-based and Community-led Clima...mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Commitments to Action: Advancing Community Rights-Based Approaches to Achieve Climate and Conservation Goals

2023

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A large proportion of the world’s remaining high-biodiversity and carbon-rich lands, forests and waters are held by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples, and a robust body of evidence demonstrates the positive environmental outcomes of their governance of these resources. Growing recognition of these roles and contributions is reflected in a range of international commitments, such as the new language on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities adopted in the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), commitments regarding Indigenous and community rights in international forest and climate initiatives, and significant funding pledges from climate and conservation donors. However, translating this emerging support into tangible actions with clear and practical meaning for local peoples remains a serious challenge. Long histories of colonialism, dispossession and fortress conservation have marginalized the rights, governance and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, leaving persistent structural barriers that risk undermining global efforts to advance human rights-based approaches to climate and conservation. While paradigms have begun to change, more deliberate and concerted actions will be needed to overcome these barriers and elevate rights and community leadership in responses to the global environmental crisis. Without such transformations, the push to achieve climate and biodiversity goals risks following well-established top-down pathways, leading to further marginalization of those on the front lines, the continued infringement of their rights, and failure to stem climate change and biodiversity loss.

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Section: Challenges To Realizing Rights-based and Community-led Clima...mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Commitments to Action: Advancing Community Rights-Based Approaches to Achieve Climate and Conservation Goals

2023

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Reviewing the science on 50 years of conservation: Knowledge production biases and lessons for practice

Dawson,

Coolsaet,

Bhardwaj

et al. 2024

Ambio

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Drawing on 662 studies from 102 countries, we present a systematic review of published empirical studies about site-level biodiversity conservation initiated between 1970 and 2019. Within this sample, we find that knowledge production about the Global South is largely produced by researchers in the Global North, implying a neocolonial power dynamic. We also find evidence of bias in reported ecological outcomes linked to lack of independence in scientific studies, serving to uphold narratives about who should lead conservation. We explore relationships in the sample studies between conservation initiative types, the extent of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ influence in governance, and reported social and ecological outcomes. Findings reveal positive ecological and social outcomes are strongly associated with higher levels of influence of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their institutions, implying equity in conservation practice should be advanced not only for moral reasons, but because it can enhance conservation effectiveness.

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Fruit tree phenology in traditionally managed versus protected forests in Malaysian Borneo

et al. 2022

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Community‐managed forests (CF) bordering protected areas are critical to conservation in Borneo. Iban‐managed CF retain tree species characteristic of primary forests within pulau, remnant old growth forests conserved for harvesting forest products. However, the selective felling of large trees, and proximity to surrounding mixed‐use mosaic habitat, likely influence pulau structure and composition. Tropical Asian forests exhibit supra‐annual mast fruiting (3–7 years) and extended periods of fruit scarcity, but fruit trees encouraged and planted by communities, in mixed‐use mosaic bordering pulau, may benefit wildlife during periods of fruit scarcity. We investigated seasonal availability of foods important to wildlife within protected primary forest and pulau at the boundary of the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary (LEWS), in Sarawak, Malaysia. We tracked the presence of fruits and seeds, comparing relative composition and fruiting activity between forests, using bi‐monthly phenology surveys across 50 locations (October 2016–2019). We also compared fruit presence along walking transects within LEWS’s primary forest and the mixed‐use mosaic in Iban territories. We found forests within and adjacent to LEWS shared similar composition, synchrony, and extended periods of fruit scarcity. Mixed‐use mosaic bordering pulau provided more consistent fruits, however, due largely to an invasive tree (Bellucia pentamera). Our study suggests pulau retain diversity and synchrony of fruit resources comparable to primary forest, sustaining valuable habitat for wildlife within the greater mixed‐use mosaic of traditional Iban land management practices. These findings are important for understanding resources available to wildlife outside of protected areas, and how CF contribute to conserving biodiversity.

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Rights-Based Conservation: The path to preserving Earth's biological and cultural diversity?

Cited by 5 publications

References 109 publications

From Commitments to Action: Advancing Community Rights-Based Approaches to Achieve Climate and Conservation Goals

From Commitments to Action: Advancing Community Rights-Based Approaches to Achieve Climate and Conservation Goals

Reviewing the science on 50 years of conservation: Knowledge production biases and lessons for practice

Fruit tree phenology in traditionally managed versus protected forests in Malaysian Borneo

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