Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA) Consortium

Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) are places governed by indigenous peoples or local communities that have high conservation values and are effectively conserved. Some are officially recognised as protected areas while most can be described as ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’. Although the biodiversity values of ICCAs are increasingly documented, many ICCAs are under a high degree of threat from development and other pressures. The recognition of the frequent overlapping of KBAs with ICCAs provides arguments and political justification for ICCAs to be maintained under current governance and management regimes, thus securing the biodiversity and other values they provide. However, that recognition could also result in loss of rights, as governments may take over the governance and management of ICCAs, disempowering or expelling the traditional owners. The effective incorporation of ICCAs within the KBA framework must be accompanied by the recognition and support of the collective rights and traditional ecological knowledge and institutions of indigenous peoples and local communities.