1.Front section - IUCN

9
Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
mechanisms for equitable sharing of costs and
benefits. For protected area agencies, the critical
question is how to engage in restitution, while ensuring
viable protection efforts. Experiences in countries,
such as Australia, which have combined restitution
efforts with protected area agreement building, provide
relevant lessons in this respect. In Canada, protected
areas are a major component of comprehensive land
claim agreements with indigenous peoples. However,
even where rights remain unresolved, mechanisms are
in place to continue collaboration on shared
conservation objectives. For example, in the Gwaii
Haanas National Park Reserve, covering 149,500ha,
Haida and Parks Canada have agreed to disagree on
land-ownership matters, yet continue to collaborate on
common conservation objectives (Gladu et al., 2003).
This is a salient feature of the four-step process of
negotiating land claims with First Nations in Canada
(Oviedo, 2002).
Comprehensive protected area systems:
the need to build on the role of
indigenous peoples and their territories
The Durban Action Plan specifically notes
the potential of “community conservation areas,
community managed areas, and private and
indigenous reserves”. Further, indigenous commitment
to all protected area types affecting their lands
and waters, under conditions of respect for indigenous
rights and interests, should also be mentioned. This
entails a double approach of strengthening the
establishment and recognition of new types of
protected area management, along with a revision of
the status of existing protected areas so as to ensure
full indigenous participation and mechanisms to
guarantee equitable cost and benefit-sharing. It
particularly involves linking indigenous protection
efforts to the overall system design and planning, to
fully recognise the conservation value of indigenous
territories in key biodiversity areas. In the Indian
Himalayas, for example, research has revealed how
community conserved areas can fill major gaps
between officially protected areas (Kothari, 2003). In
the Russian Arctic, indigenous natural sacred sites, an
integral part of the customary land and water
management mosaic, form a cultural basis for linking
protected areas to surrounding landscapes (Raipon
and Caff, 2004). In the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous
territories not only fill many existing protected area
gaps, but often provide more effective protection
Memorial poles from the Haida Indigenous population in Anthony Island Park (SGaang Gwaii), one of the Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada.
IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
120