Policy Brief
First published on 10/15/2026
By ICCA Consortium
The Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) is one of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD’s) most influential frameworks guiding protected area policy and practice worldwide. Adopted at the seventh Conference of the Parties (COP7) in 2004, it is now being reviewed and updated to align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) and harmonize with other key CBD decisions adopted since COP7.
For Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and ICCAs–territories of life, this review is significant because PoWPA contains important commitments under Element 2 on governance, participation, equity, and benefit sharing. Over the years, the ICCA Consortium has played a significant role in enabling implementation of these commitments, although they remain some of the least implemented aspects of the Programme.
Through direct advocacy and textual suggestions through allied caucuses, particularly the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), the Consortium policy team and other participating Members will have an important opportunity to influence the PoWPA revision process at COP17 this month.
What did SBSTTA Recommend?
Before the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) formally forwarded its recommendations on PoWPA (CBD/SBSTTA/REC/28/5), the Consortium provided a submission emphasizing the need to strengthen recognition of Indigenous and Traditional Territories (ITTs) and ICCAs–territories of life as a pathway, expand the scope of the Programme beyond protected areas, strengthen human rights-based approaches and free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and improve implementation of equity and benefit-sharing commitments, among other recommendations.
SBSTTA submitted its advisory recommendations to COP17, where delegates will decide whether and how to revise it. One of the most significant recommendations is the expansion of PoWPA’s scope to include other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) and ITTs, with references to Indigenous and Traditional Territories repeated throughout the recommendation and annex. However, these references are nearly all in brackets, and the draft does not mention ICCAs, which is listed in the CBD Article 8(j) glossary. Throughout the text, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are increasingly recognized as rights-holders and contributors to conservation rather than mere beneficiaries and stakeholders, but several of the most significant rights-related provisions remain bracketed.
The bracketed text would also define “conserved areas” as synonymous with OECMs, which is an area of grave concern. In the Consortium’s understanding, conserved areas are territories or areas that achieve conservation de facto, regardless of recognition, and many ICCAs–territories of life conserve nature without being listed in any official protected areas system. Because OECMs are defined as entirely separate from protected areas, equating the two terms would make “protected” and “conserved” incompatible in CBD parlance.
What are our Priorities at COP17?
COP17 opens in Yerevan, Armenia on October 19. Considering SBSTTA’s recommendations, these are the issues the Consortium policy team and participating Members will be following, and where Members can press for stronger outcomes:
- Maintain and strengthen recognition of Indigenous and Traditional Territories and ICCAs–territories of life. Ensure references to ITTs are retained and strengthened and remain aligned with outcomes from the Article 8(j) process and initiate discussion on the relationship and overlaps between ITTs and ICCAs.
- Defend rights-based approaches. Advocate for stronger language on rights-based approaches, FPIC, and recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ governance systems.
- Ensure governance diversity and equity remains central, including in the name of PoWPA itself. Promote recognition that biodiversity conservation is achieved through diverse governance systems and types, including ICCAs–territories of life.
- Engage on monitoring and data governance. Support community-led monitoring and recognition of Indigenous and local knowledge systems and data sovereignty.
- Monitor emerging ecological connectivity discussions. Ensure future ecological connectivity initiatives do not undermine self-determined conservation or customary governance.
- Advocate for direct and accessible financing. Support stronger commitments on financing for Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, women, and youth.
- Safeguard accountability mechanisms. Advocate for retention and strengthening of provisions on access to justice, effective grievance mechanisms, and protection of environmental human rights defenders.
At COP17, it will be critical to ensure that gains made on recognition of Indigenous and Traditional Territories and ICCAs–territories of life are retained and strengthened.
