Community-led conservation

Community-led conservation refers to a re-imaging of conservation as a primarily locally driven action where indigenous peoples and local communities take the lead in managing natural resources, caring for their lands and resources and sustaining their own cultures.

By investing in, and supporting, community-led conservation initiatives and enhancing community capacity to monitor and demonstrate biodiversity outcomes, the project contributes to the base of evidence that demonstrates the crucial role of indigenous peoples and communities in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Peruvian indigenous youth draw a map of their territory

Wampis Nation students drawing the learnings from their leadership training, one of five delivered over a year by LifeMosaic for the Shawi Leadership School in Peru. Photo by Mikey Watts

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All Community-led conservation

Conservation and Human Rights: An Introduction

This guidance is intended as a resource for conservation professionals who are interested to learn more about the relationship between conservation and human rights, especially the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. A huge amount has been written on this topic over the past…

30.10.24

Blog

Training resources on the Convention on Biological Diversity

This booklet series provides Indigenous Peoples and local communities with key insights into the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and its Target 3, focusing on their rights and participation in global conservation efforts. It offers guidance on engaging…

28.10.24

Ensuring the sustainability of customary use on Indigenous and community-held lands

This guide is for local organisations (e.g. community-based organisations and trusted local non-governmental organisations) which are supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP & LCs) in their desire to assess the sustainability of natural resources on their lands (both terrestrial and marine), and implement activities…

17.10.24

Video

Mapping and Monitoring in Indigenous Territories

This film is made by six indigenous filmmakers from Asia, Latin America and Africa, about mapping and monitoring in indigenous territories. The film is designed to raise community awareness and looks into ancestral and technological approaches to mapping and monitoring, as well as the benefits…

30.09.24

Article

Mapeo app used for gathering data points along a transect.

Community-based biodiversity monitoring trials begin in Mt. Elgon

After a series of indoor training and field practical together with elders, the monitors have gained skills to enable them collect data. With past experience on the use of mapping tool which is mastered by some of the monitors, the community is now applying the…

23.09.24

Video

Sungai ethnic men explaining on the types of animal traps using materials from their forest. Tony/PACOS, 2015

PACOS Trust joins the Transformative Pathways

As of August 2024, we are honoured to welcome PACOS Trust, an Indigenous community-based organisation in Sabah, Malaysia to the Transformative Pathways Project. PACOS Trust (short for Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah) is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Indigenous communities in…

29.08.24

Further info

Indigenous peoples have developed sophisticated knowledge systems and management practices that have enabled them to live sustainably in their environments for many generations, and in many cases, millennia. By giving them greater control over the management of natural resources, community-led conservation can ensure that these valuable traditions are preserved, and that biodiversity is protected for future generations.

Over the course of the project, this larger base of evidence will directly impact how much local and national governments recognise and support indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ beneficial roles in biodiversity protection. Consequently, this will also improve the level of protection and recognition of their underlying rights to lands, resources and traditional knowledge.

These two aspects of the long-term impact are closely connected: sustaining community-led long-term management of natural resources is linked to the security of underlying tenure, yet in many of the project countries customary tenure is insufficiently recognised.

By demonstrating the valuable contributions that these territories make to national biodiversity priorities, the project makes the case for increasing security of tenure over the longer-term.