Reimagining Conservation Through Human Rights

From the Amazon to the Arctic, people and communities are increasingly raising important questions about how conservation efforts can better respect the rights, knowledge and leadership of Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities. In many parts of the world, these communities play a critical role in stewarding biodiversity and protecting vital ecosystems, often while facing growing pressures and risks.

Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities steward a significant share of the world’s remaining biodiversity and are often on the frontlines of defending land, waters and ecosystems under growing pressure. As global biodiversity and climate targets drive renewed expansion of protected and conserved areas, debates around conservation, rights and territorial governance have become increasingly central to international environmental agendas.

In recent years, these groups have also secured important political recognition in international negotiations. At the Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 in Cali, in 2024, governments approved the Cali Fund — a new and still underfunded mechanism aimed at mobilizing private-sector financing for global biodiversity action, with at least 50% of its resources intended to support Indigenous peoples and local communities. COP16 also formally recognized the contribution of Afro-descendant peoples’ traditional knowledge and practices to biodiversity conservation, while adopting a landmark decision to strengthen coordination between the biodiversity, climate and desertification conventions (CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD), reinforcing the links between climate, nature and territorial rights.

The Human Rights Principles for Conservation recently developed by the UN Environment Programme have further strengthened international discussions on how conservation efforts can become more equitable, effective and responsive to the people most closely connected to the ecosystems they help sustain and protect. These developments reflect growing recognition that protecting biodiversity also requires strengthening territorial rights, local leadership and direct access to resources and decision-making processes.

This panel event, co-hosted by Global Greengrants Fund, Blue Ventures, Mongabay and IMPACT Kenya, will explore how rights-based approaches to conservation, alongside community-led climate funds, can strengthen both human rights and environmental outcomes. Bringing together environmental defenders and community leaders from Kenya, Brazil and beyond, the discussion will examine emerging conservation approaches that are locally led, inclusive and grounded in territorial rights and community knowledge, while also exploring how global environmental governance and processes can not only respect but better recognize, support and directly include the communities most closely connected to the ecosystems they protect.

This event is invite-only, however enquiries to join can be made by contacting anna@globalgreengrants.org.uk.