Human rights

In order to gain further experience on rights-based approaches (RBAs) to conservation, the project focused on undertaking a situation analysis in the Xe Champhone Ramsar Site in Lao PDR. It examined the under-researched issue of customary law governing natural resources, including its relationship with statutory law. This publication summarizes and analyses the findings of the field work.

“Un tigre para los derechos” is a story about rights. It is based on the experience of the Shuar Arutam Peoples, an Ecuadorian Indigenous Peoples that live in the Amazon forest. The story tells about the process to strengthen their rights, to live according to their traditions and manage the territory according to their needs and believes.

This briefing discusses the human rights impact of conservation policies and the role of non-governmental and international conservation organizations in protecting human rights while supporting conservation initiatives. The article includes information relating to the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights and a description of the IUCN resolutions and recommendations regarding human rights and conservation.

The term “rights-based approach” (RBA) has been used in various contexts and defined in different ways. This publication applies the approach specifically in exploring the linkages between conservation and respect for internationally and nationally guaranteed human rights.

The links between human rights and biodiversity and natural resource conservation are many and complex. The conservation community is being challenged to take stronger measures to respect human rights and is taking opportunities to further their realisation. ‘Rights-based approaches’ (RBAs) to conservation are a promising way forward, but also raise a myriad of new challenges and questions.This volume gives an overview of key issues and questions in RBA.

Today, there is increasing recognition that traditional and indigenous knowledge systems can provide alternative strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, a realisation that is strongly reflected in the Convention on biological diversity. However, there is a fear that this interest in traditional knowledge systems will lead to the basic human, cultural and scientific rights of indigenous people being sidelined, something the CBD fails to address adequately.