Indigenous peoples' and local communities' conserved territories and areas (ICCAs) make significant contributions to biodiversity conservation and achieving biodiversity targets. ICCAs encompass diverse ecosystems ranging from sacred natural sites to areas protecting wildlife habitats and migration routes that are voluntarily conserved through customary laws. While ICCAs likely conserve as much land as official protected areas, many remain unrecognized. ICCAs help meet several Aichi Biodiversity Targets by maintaining biodiversity, ecosystem services, and sustainable practices while facing threats from lack of land rights, extractive industries, and cultural changes. Progress has been made in some countries legally recognizing ICCAs and community-conserved areas.

1. ICCAs & Aichi Targets:
Contribution of Indigenous Peoples’ and
Community Conserved Territories and Areas to
the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh and ICCA Consortium

2. Indigenous peoples’ and local
community conserved
territories and areas (ICCAs):
Natural and modified ecosystems
with significant biodiversity,
ecological functions and cultural values…
voluntarily conserved by indigenous peoples and local
communities through customary laws
or other effective means

3. The global diversity of ICCAs includes ...
sacred
natural
sites …
Sacred lake, Indian Himalaya © Pankaj Sekhsaria
Chizire sacred forest,
Zimbabwe
Sacred bolon in Kawawana, Senegal
© Christian Chatelain
Sacred hill tops,
Tibet, China
© Grazia Borrini-
Feyerabend

4. Traditional heronry, Kokare
Bellure, India © Ashish Kothari
Demoiselle cranes, Kheechan village, India ©
Asad Rahmani
Wildlife
habitats
(nesting,
roosting,
feeding)
Indigenous ranger at Mapoon
rescuing sea turtle, Australia
© Craig Wheeler
Community-protected Markhor at
Torgarh, Pakistan © Tahir Rasheed
Slender loris, Nagavali villages, India
© Ashish Kothari

5. Indigenous territories and
biocultural landscapes/seascapes …
Skeena River
in Gixtsan
territory,
Canada
© Francois
Depey
Mandingalbay Yidinji Indigenous Protected Area, Australia © Cairns Post
TCO Isoso, Bolivia
© Carmen E. Miranda L.

6. territories and migration routes of
nomadic herders and mobile Indigenous
peoples …
Shahsavan peoples’ territory, Iran
(Courtesy CENESTA)

7. sustainably used wetlands,
coastal and marine areas …
Lubuk Larangan river, Mandailing, Sumatra
Kawawana
ICCA,
Senegal
Coron Island, Tagbanwa Ancestral Domain,
Philippines © Ashish Kothari
Waya Island,
Fiji (Locally
Managed
Marine
Area)
© Stacy
Jupiter

8. sustainably used
terrestrial
ecosystems …
(biomass, medicinal plants, timber
and non-timber forest products)
Himalayan forest, Jardhargaon, India
© Ashish Kothari
Community forests and lake,
Rupataal, Nepal
© Ashish Kothari
Parc Jurassien Vaudois,
Switzerland
Qanats, Central Asia

9. Hundreds of thousands
of ICCAs (most
undocumented and
unrecognised)
No overall figure of extent, but
could be as large as
official protected
areas (10-15% of
earth)

10. ICCAs are the world’s
best bet to meet
several Aichi Targets

11. STRATEGIC GOAL A
Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss
by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
Target 1: Awareness, values
Target 2: Integration with poverty, livelihood, development programmes
Target 3: Incentives
Target 4: Sustainable production and consumption
ICCAs involve processs in which Indigenous peoples and local
communities integrate biodiversity, culture, adaptive knowledge
systems, livelihoods, and governance…

12. STRATEGIC GOAL B
Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
Target 5: Reduce loss of habitats
Targets 6,7: Sustainable fisheries, agriculture, aquaculture, forestry
Target 8, 9: Tackle pollution and invasive species
Target 10: Coral reefs and vulnerable ecosystems
ICCAs reduce or eliminate direct internal and external pressures
on biodiversity…

13. STRATEGIC GOAL C
To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding
ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
Target 11: Protected areas & other effective conservation measures
Target 12: Preventing extinctions
Target 13: Genetic diversity (domesticated, wild relatives)
ICCAs contribute tremendously to conservation of biodiversity
and wildlife, even when the primary objectives are different…

14. STRATEGIC GOAL D
Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
Target 14: Ecosystem services
Target 15: Climate resilience
Target 16: Access and benefit-sharing
Communities have a vested interest in maintaining, reviving and
enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem functions…

15. STRATEGIC GOAL E
Enhance implementation through participatory planning,
knowledge management and capacity building
Target 17: NBSAPS
Targets 18,19: Knowledge, science and technology (including traditional)
Target 20: Resources
Localised institutions for natural resource stewardship, governance and
management rely on sophisticated knowledge systems…

16. ICCAs already contribute much to the
achievement of the Aichi Targets,
and could contribute even more with
appropriate recognition
and support

17. Threats and challenges
• Lack recognition in law and policy
• Threats by extractive industry, monocultures,
militarisation, commodification, climate change
• Top-down, exclusionary conservation policies
• Cultural and demographic change
• Social, economic, political inequities

18. territorial / tenurial rights
customary governance
knowledge, practices
documentation, assessments
resisting threats
Social, economic, livelihood

19. Good News: Progress in Legal Recognition
 Multiple references to ICCAs in CBD Decisions
and IUCN Resolutions
 RRI (2012): Forests under community
ownership/management, up from 10 to 15% in
last decade
 Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Australia: Indigenous
territories designated
 Philippines: Ancestral Domain titles to many
Indigenous territories
 India: Community Forest Rights (including
use/management)
 Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania: community forests
and/or conservancies, with full management
and use control
 Fiji: recognition of Locally Managed Marine
Areas (100% of country’s marine protected area
system)

20. Key Resources

21. for more information:
www.iccaconsortium.org
chikikothari@gmail.com
Thanks to Gino Cocchiaro