Conservation and Human Rights
In recent years there has been increasing concern about the impacts of conservation on local and indigenous communities. In particular the impacts of protected areas have come under close scrutiny.
Although protected area planning is the responsibility of government ministries, international conservation NGOs have been the target of criticism concerning these impacts.
In cooperation with a project convened by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED, www.iied.org), FIELD was the lead author on Conservation and Human Rights – Who says what? A review of international law and policy, in ‘Rights-based approaches: Exploring opportunities for conservation’ (J Campese, et al. eds.) available at www.cifor.cgiar.org.
This collection of papers, jointly published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), recognises the importance of understanding and addressing the links between conservation and human rights.
The FIELD paper provides a brief overview of current provisions for addressing human rights in a conservation context – both ‘hard’ international law, and ‘soft’ law (guidelines, principles, etc.) developed by a range of organisations.
It is intended as a reference to help quickly identify what is and is not currently addressed in international law and policy, what is binding and what is not, and what are practical requirements and aspirations.
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