First published on 09/30/2015, and last updated on 06/27/2017
Companion document to issue no 2 of the ICCA Consortium Policy Brief Series, Including the full paper and annexes
Fernanda Almeida, with Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Stephen Garnett, Holly C. Jonas, Harry D. Jonas, Ashish Kothari, Emma Lee, Michael Lockwood, Fred Nelson and Stan Stevens (2015)
This paper analyses the importance of legal recognition of collective tenure rights (including to customary land and sea tenure) of indigenous peoples and local communities for the survival and thriving of their conserved territories and areas (ICCAs); the importance of legal recognition of ICCAs for their conservation values; and the relationship between the two. Overall, this paper concludes that a necessary step for the effective recognition and thriving of ICCAs, and for conservation itself, is the implementation of legal reforms appropriately recognizing collective tenure rights of indigenous peoples and local communities within but also beyond conservation and protected area laws and policies.