About ICCAs

Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) are defined as:

"natural and/or modified ecosystems containing significant biodiversity values and ecological services, voluntarily conserved by (sedentary and mobile) indigenous and local communities, through customary laws or other effective means." (World Parks Congress Recommendation V26, 2003)

Examples of ICCAs include indigenous territories, indigenous protected areas, cultural land- and seascapes, sacred sites and species, migration routes of mobile indigenous peoples, bio-cultural heritage territories, sustainable resource reserves, fishing grounds, and community-managed areas. Although there is no clear idea of the extent of area that ICCAs cover across the globe, it is estimated that some 11% of the world's forests are under community ownership or administration1. Recent international meetings, including the 2003 World Parks Congress and the 2004 Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity, have contributed to a re-evaluation of ICCAs as one of the main avenues to strengthen sustainable natural resource use and conservation. While the conservation practices of ICCAs are potentially the oldest on earth, they are under- recognized and not well understood, thus leaving them in jeopardy from lack of political and financial support and increasingly vulnerable to external threats.

1 Molnar, A., Scherr, S & Khare, A. (2004). Who conserves the world’s forests: community driven strategies to protect forests and respect rights. Forest Trends & Ecoagriculture Partners: Washington, DC.

Benefits of ICCAs

While the exact spatial extent and global numbers of ICCAs are still unknown, it is clear that ICCAs protect an enormous range of natural environments, wildlife species and agricultural and pastoral landscapes managed through a wide diversity of institutions and rules by traditional and modern communities alike. These sites range from less than one hectare to entire mountains, lakes or landscapes and seascapes. Thus, the contribution of ICCAs to biodiversity conservation is an important consideration as a tool for protecting natural resources and human livelihoods.

In addition to the direct value that ICCAs confer to the diverse species, habitats and ecological processes benefitting from their management, there are multiple environmental services, such as carbon storage and water purification, that are enabled by supporting the viability of ICCAs. Given the significant but undocumented role of indigenous and locally managed areas in maintaining biological diversity and ecological processes, initiatives such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) and those that address adaption to climate change will rely more heavily on current knowledge of ICCAs as their efforts become more widespread and urgent.

Defining Characteristics of ICCAs

Though ICCAs are extremely diverse in a number of ways, they all contain three essential features:

1. A strong relationship exists between indigenous or local communities (sedentary or mobile) and their physical environment (such as a given ecosystem, habitat, resource or species) as a result of cultural, social, economic and other reasons.
2. The concerned indigenous peoples or local community plays a key role in making decisions about the management of the ecosystem, area or species. The community possesses (in law or in practice) the power to make and enforce key management decisions regarding the territory and resources.
3. The voluntary management decisions and efforts of the concerned community lead to, or at least are well in the process of leading to, the conservation of biodiversity, habitats, species, ecological functions and associated cultural values, regardless of the original management objectives as perceived by the community.

Threats to ICCAs

While the ecological and cultural significance of areas governed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities gains greater attention at the global level, so does the range of threats which communities face while they try to maintain their close association with the natural environment. These threats include direct and indirect impacts from human activities as well as natural phenomena. As efforts to document ICCAs increases, we expect to understand more clearly the threats to communities. The ICCA Registry assesses the range of threats that ICCAs face as a natural step in understanding the full range of solutions available.

Major current threats to ICCAs

• Undeclared ownership or tenure of land and resources (i.e., lack of recognition)
• Inappropriate forms of recognition or national policies which weaken traditional governance
• Conflict with other protected areas overlapping with the ICCA, leading to expropriation of community lands
• Development (transport infrastructure, buildings and so forth)
• Extraction (e.g. hunting, mining, logging, fishing)
• Localized impacts of global climate change
• Invasive species
• Over-harvesting of resources
• Biodiversity decline
• Loss of important sacred sites, species and traditional medicines
• Excessive tourism access
• Inappropriate management
• De-legitimisation of customary rights
• Inequities (social, economic and/or political) within the ICCA
• Conflict with neighbouring or associated communities
• War and movement of refugees
• Loss of traditional or local knowledge
• Change in cultural practices
• Destabilization of community due to exodus of members