First published on 05/31/2008, and last updated on 07/20/2022
TGER/TILCEPA and partners organized a side event at CBD COP 9 entitled “ICCAs: from ‘oldest secret’ to crucial avenue for the conservation for biodiversity…” and provided participants with a space to discuss ICCAs and their potential to further the implementation of the CBD.
Please follow this link to read more on ICCAs in Decisions of CBD COP 9.
After an introduction to the concept and history of ICCAs, speakers presented case studies from Italy, Iran and Peru; the national situation of ICCAs in India was described, as well as the significance of ICCAs for traditional fishing communities. The brief presentations were followed by an intense discussion among the roughly 150 participants, several among them representatives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The scope, diversity and challenges of ICCAs were explored, and the usefulness of the ICCA concept for securing community governance of natural resources was debated.
The ICCA side event was followed up by two smaller, ad-hoc meetings to discuss the concept of ICCAs and steps forward.The first was an evening meeting among some participants of the side-event, where they had the occasion to deepen their exchange and share experiences and perspectives. The interventions from participants showed the vast range of realities on the ground.
Participants stressed that the success or failure of ICCAs are intimately linked to the issue of rights of indigenous peoples and communities to their lands and resources. Several intervention from participants recounted how indigenous peoples and local communities were evicted from their territories and ICCAs as these were taken over by the state to create formal conservation areas.
Overall, the discussion about the opportunities and challenges of ICCAs to implement the PoWPA will have to continue: this type of meetings will take place throughout this year, culminating at a ICCA workshop and exchange space at the Community Poble at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.The second meeting was an information exchange between TILCEPA and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB). The concept of ICCAs was presented by Ashish Kothari and Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, and the concept of Indigenous Biocultural territories was explained by Alejandro Argumedo. The discussion centred around whether indigenous territories and biocultural areas can fit under the ICCA concept and how the perspectives and conservation efforts of Indigenous Peoples and Local communities can best be recognized and supported within, or outside of, the IUCN framework of Protected Areas.
