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In 2022, nearly 200 countries made a renewed commitment to follow a human rights-based approach in conservation when they adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Meeting this commitment will require a fundamental shift in how conservation is done, away from top-down approaches towards greater support for conservation by indigenous peoples and local communities.ÌýÌý

Several changes will need to take place within the conservation sector for this shift to happen. These include institutional changes, to redress the balance between state protected areas conservation and other types of conservation. They also include changes in our norms about how conservation can be achieved most effectively, and how we can best support locally-led conservation initiatives. However, one underlying requirement is a much better understanding amongst conservation professionals of international human rights law, how it applies to conservation, and what exactly a human rights-based approach involves. Our new publication is designed to help meet this requirement.

The publication has been produced through a collaboration between Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹ûÏÖ³¡Ö±²¥ CEESP members at the University of Oxford and in Forest Peoples Programme. It sets out relevant human rights of people who are particularly affected by conservation - indigenous peoples and local communities, women, and environmental human rights defenders – and presents a suite of practical tools and approaches for respecting, protecting and fulfilling rights in conservation practice.Ìý

The guidance emphasises that human rights-based approaches are not simply aboutÌý protecting human rights; they are also about supporting rightsholders to assert and exercise their rights, including their rights to protect and conserve their lands, territories and the biodiversity they contain. Therefore, they offer a constructive framework for building more effective, equitable approaches to conservation.

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