Support to indigenous peoples’ and community conserved areas and territories (ICCAs)

Indigenous peoples and local communities play a crucial role in the conservation of biological diversity. The project supports these communities in 45 countries in preserving their traditional habitats and protecting biodiversity. Among other methods, this is done through a small project fund. Knowledge and resources are also built up in local communities to manage and preserve protected areas. The overall aim here is to create a fairly managed network of protected areas. The habitats of indigenous communities living in the areas are also to be improved and safeguarded. Traditional knowledge and uses should be recognised and addressed in state planning processes. The partner countries are also given advice on the implementation of their protected area strategies. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was expanded to mitigate the direct impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to contribute to pandemic prevention.

Project data

Countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, Zambia
IKI funding: 27,000,000.00 €
Duration: 11/2013 till 12/2024
Status: open
Implementing organisation: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Political Partner: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) - Canada
Implementing Partner: Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA Global Consortium)

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) - Switzerland

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State of implementation/results

In January 2024, the Global ICCA Registry database was updated and relaunched online, including an interactive map and summary of the latest ICCA Registry data.
In February 2024, an international expert group meeting was organised in Nanyuki, in Kenya to establish a roadmap to provide support for more equitable governance and respect for rights in area-based conservation (www.iied.org/…).
During the GEF Assembly in August 2023 the ICCA GSI organised a panel on ‘Direct access to climate and nature finance for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, new approaches to financing and upscaling local actions’.
At a side event at CBD COP 15 the ICCA-GSI synthesis publication was announced to present the consolidated results achieved from 2014-2022; and UNEP WCMC launched a new digital mapping app for ICCAs entitled ‘Mapeo’ developed in partnership with Digital Democracy, Forest Peoples Programme, WCMC, and the ICCA GSI.
ICCA-GSI participated in various fora in 2022 towards contributing to the achievement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, namely CBD COP 15 (December 2022) by hosting a side event “From the Aichi Targets to the post-2020 GBF: expanding global partnerships to recognize the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ territories and areas (ICCAs) for biodiversity conservation and human well-being”. Other conferences include the Central Africa Regional Parks Congress in Goma, DRC (March 2022), the 2nd Asia Parks Congress in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (May 2022), the Second High Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development“, 2018-2028 held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (June 2022), and the 1st Africa Parks Congress (July 2022) held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The ICCA-GSI publication was launched in December 2022 at CBD COP 15 to present the consolidated results achieved from 2014 until 2022 and future directions aligned to the new GBF. The ‚State of IPLCs Report‘ and the ‚Territories for Life: 2021 Report‘ have been launched in 2021.
As part of the project expansion in 2021, additional small grants were provided in 45 countries and a website page was added. Trainings on monitoring and indicator tracking tools have been undertaken in 45 countries.
As of September March 20243, a total of 66454 projects implemented/being implemented directly benefit 709,000 people and have positively influenced over 7.2 million hectares of land. A total of 559,059 people gained capacities in managing their ICCAs according to their self-determined priorities.
The project sets a clear emphasis on knowledge management to highlight the projects’ impacts. Some examples include
- turning youth into powerful ambassadors for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, spurring action to protect unique Guatemalan wetlands (www.sgp.undp.org/…)
- revitalizing indigenous conservation methods in Iran to safeguard wetlands (www.sgp.undp.org/…), and
- establishing the first agro-forestry concession managed by indigenous peoples and local communities in Belize (undp-nature.exposure.co/…)
Additionally, a variety of knowledge management tools is available to support the ICCAs. These include a database for capacity building and knowledge transfer, a website for the registration of ICCAs, webinars and trainings in target countries and side events at conferences.
UNEP-WCMC has launched an online information platform for ICCAs (July 2017) that complements the UNEP WCMC data manual. The webinar recordings are available in English, French and Spanish on the You Tube channel of UNEP WCMC. (www.youtube.com/…) As of September 2023March 2024, over 31,179,900 45,457,500 hectares of ICCAs spread over 310379 ICCAs in 42 24 countries and territories have been registered at the international level in the Global ICCA Registry managed by UNEP WCMC.
The ICCA Self-Strengthening Process (SSP) was completed by the Global ICCA Consortium and made available to the ICCA-GSI countries in English, French, and Spanish and Portuguese (www.iccaconsortium.org/…)