1.Front section - IUCN

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Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
adjacent to those areas; and to provide an important
element for a more eclectic and inclusive system of
governance for protected areas that benefits from
diversity.
However, this will not be accomplished easily and
many barriers exist. These barriers may include a lack
of capacity within local and indigenous communities
to participate in decision-making processes and on the
part of management agencies to deal effectively with
the participation of local and indigenous groups.
Other barriers may include models of participation
which are not sensitive to cultural needs, the
organizational structures of local and indigenous
communities that concentrate power within certain
groups and lack of willingness to relinquish power on
the part of managers. “Empowering indigenous and
local communities in conservation may require a
difficult sharing of authority and responsibility, but
conservation can no longer afford to consume its
precious resources fighting its most promising allies”
(Policy Matters 12, editorial). The WPC provided
further support for empowering indigenous and local
communities by endorsing a recommendation on ‘Co-
Management of Protected Areas’ that defines comanaged
protected areas (CMPAs) as those “where
management authority, responsibility and
accountability are shared among two or more
stakeholders, including government bodies and
agencies at various levels, indigenous and local
communities, non-government organizations and
private operators, or even among different state
governments as in the case of transboundary protected
areas” (IUCN, 2003).
The empowerment of local and indigenous
communities requires governance systems that are
inclusive and flexible, and embrace in an equitable
way the diversity of perspectives from different
interest groups. Within this, gender considerations
should also be taken into account (e.g., Aguilar et al.,
2002; Flintan, 2003). Governance is considered to be
of central importance to the effectiveness and survival
of protected areas within larger political, economic
and social contexts (e.g., Borrini-Feyerabend, 2003).
The recommendation from the WPC on “Good
Governance” promoted better understanding of this
concept. It recognised that governance of protected
areas “should reflect and address relevant social,
ecological, cultural, historical and economic factors,
and what constitutes ‘good governance’ in any area
needs to be considered in light of local circumstances,
traditions and knowledge systems” (IUCN, 2003).
Governance issues with respect to protected areas
should not be addressed only at the local level, but
also at national, regional and international levels.
Establishing linkages among all these levels is crucial
for multi-scale governance systems, all of which
affect local and indigenous communities on the
ground.
Social justice and human rights in
conservation: An ethical consideration for
future policies and actions
Globalization, with its economic decision making and
governance structures that are far removed from the
local protected area context, has further contributed to
the alienation and deterioration of living conditions of
local and indigenous communities in many places.
This concern needs to be addressed and, at a
minimum, protected area conservation and
management should not make communities living in
and around them worse off than they are already. The
re-distribution of benefits (particularly from global,
regional and national levels to the local level) needs to
take place for this to occur. Governance mechanisms
need to be flexible and inclusive, and policies and
planning frameworks need to be supportive and
address the linkage between conservation and the
needs and aspirations of local and indigenous
communities. Moreover, the relationship between
local and indigenous communities and protected areas
must be viewed within a broader context of
sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts
which nowadays dominate many such policy and
planning frameworks.
It is time to recognise that we need to foster a better
connection between biodiversity conservation and
social justice. The concept of social and
environmental justice (i.e., the equitable achievement
of human and environmental rights) is evolving and is
articulated in partnerships between environmental and
development NGOs (CARE-WWF Social and
Environmental Justice Initiative, 2002; Brechin et al.,
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