TILCEPA MEMBERHSIP AND STRUCTURE
PUBLICATIONS AUTHORED, EDITED OR CO- AUTHORED/EDITED BY TILCEPA MEMBERS
Many local rural communities - including, in particular but not exclusively, tribal or indigenous peoples- have an integral and intimate link with the natural resources and ecosystems surrounding them. Their knowledge base, cultural traditions and practices relating to biological and other natural resources remain a critical component in the conservation of biodiversity. Throughout history their role has been enormous in conserving a variety of natural environments for a variety of purposes, economic as well as spiritual and aesthetic. With respect to state declared and managed protected areas (PAs) this role is increasingly being appreciated, "re-discovered" and fulfilled in many countries.
The Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity, and Protected Areas (TILCEPA), was set up in 2000 by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) . This Inter-commission initiative evolved from a Task Force on Local Communities and Protected Areas, created in 1999, which had a similar mandate.
TILCEPA seeks the full and effective recognition of the rights and responsibilities of local communities in the development and implementation of conservation policies and strategies that affect the lands, waters and other natural and cultural resources that they relate to. It advocates, in all countries, the recognition of community conserved and managed areas that are significant from biodiversity point of view, and the development of management partnerships with the communities resident in or surrounding official PAs.
TILCEPA work focuses on good governance of PAs (equity in particular) and the recognition of multiple forms of governance of PAs.
Having achieved significant progress at the international policy front, especially with the inclusion of Element 2 of Governance, Equity, Participation and Benefit-sharing in the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas, TILCEPA has since 2005 focused on national and local implementation of equitable and progressive conservation policies and programmes. Work on international policy also continues, such as for the Marine Parks Congress, and a number of regional congresses and meetings on PAs. The following are areas of interest and concern of members:
- New typology of governance of PAs
- Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs)
- ICCAs and sustainable livelihoods
- ICCAs and IUCN PA categories
- Community Managed Landscapes and territories of mobile indigenous peoples
- Institutional Structures for co-management of PAs
- Human Wildlife Conflicts
- Sustainable Use/Material benefits of PAs
- Non Material benefits of PAs
- Equity in the distribution of the costs and benefits of conservation
- Poverty, Livelihoods and PAs
- Progressive PA Laws and Policies
- Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, including participatory governance assessment
- Capacity-building for PA management
Recently, several members of TILCEPA participated in an international workshop on ICCAs in Turkey and set in motion a process to discuss at the grassroots and possibly develop a global alliance in support of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas. See www.ICCAforum.org
TILCEPA MEMBERSHIP AND STRUCTURE
Membership
- TILCEPA membership is open to individuals with concern, experience, and expertise relating to issues of indigenous peoples, local communities, equity and protected areas. The members generally offer their contributions on a volunteer basis. They can be compensated for their professional activities if funds are available through specific projects or programmes
- TILCEPA is an inter-commission group, set up by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP). Currently, membership in TILCEPA automatically implies membership in CEESP. In the case of WCPA, acceptance as member is not automatic, but a request can be forwarded by the co-chairs to the WCPA Chair, on behalf of the individual concerned.
- Membership is by invitation, which is issued by one of the TILCEPA Co-chairs. Persons can apply or be nominated, but in all cases have to be invited by the co-chairs.
- Members may be more or less active depending on individual commitments and opportunities, and can focus their interest in one or more specific sub-topics, and/or one or more regions/countries of the world.
- TILCEPA's composition is up for review every four years; however, the Core Group and General Group (see below, Structure) are evolving and members can be added or removed at any time, while the Co-chairs are expected to last the full 4 year term.
Structure, roles and responsibilities
The TILCEPA structure is comprised of:
- two Co-chairs;
- a small Core Group composed of members who agree to take an active lead on TILCEPA matters on a regional, national or thematic area, and who are available to the co-chairs to consult on urgent decisions;
- the larger membership or General Group, which would be consulted in all key decisions to be taken.
The Co-chairs promote and represent the interests and concerns of TILCEPA in appropriate forums, and facilitate communication and joint action among TILCEPA members, and between TILCEPA and other agencies/groups/individuals. In particular they foster collaboration and joint initiatives with other Themes and Working Groups of the IUCN Commissions with whom TILCEPA has an overlap in terms of key concerns and work objectives.
The members of the Core Group take responsibility for TILCEPA initiatives on a given topic or region, in organizing particular events, and/or in generally helping with the functioning of the group. They take upon themselves to identify and contact the TILCEPA members with relevant concerns (and/or to propose new members with appropriate capacities and concerns) and to collaborate with members and partners (including other IUCN commissions, IUCN member organizations, the IUCN secretariat, regional, and grassroots organizations) to develop specific initiatives. With the help of the WCPA and CEESP Chairs, the IUCN secretariat and the TILCEPA Co-Chairs, the members of the Core Group also seek and obtain the necessary human and financial resources to carry out the said initiatives. They also take the responsibility to update the entire TILCEPA membership, through a periodic report, on the area of focus that they represent in the core.
The Co-chairs and Core Group take decisions regarding TILCEPA activities, structure, and functioning, including review of past work and working out strategic future directions. Major decisions should always involve consultations with the General membership, unless exceptional circumstances require otherwise.
The general membership is expected to be responsive to issues being taken up by TILCEPA's Co-chairs and Core Group, as also pro-active in bringing issues for discussion and action, and generally in carrying forward the mandate of TILCEPA. It would be involved in all major decisions to be taken regarding TILCEPA.
NETWORKING AMONG LOCAL COMMUNITIES, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND
TILCEPA promotes the participation of indigenous peoples and other local communities at regional and global events through various means. In conjunction with the Indigenous Peoples Forum and World Alliance of Mobile and Indigenous Peoples we have been helping identify potential participants, finding funds for their travel and facilitating their participation at the event itself. We have been partnering with the Equator Initiative to plan and facilitate Community Parks ( spaces meant mainly for community use) at such global events.
The “IUCN Protected area matrix”: understanding and using the concept of governance of protected areas
TILCEPA has been active in refining the concept of PA governance,
through both “type” and “quality” considerations. After IUCN Best Practice
Guidelines no.11 a number of papers were finalized and discussed during the IUCN Summit in Almeria. They offer a basis for an IUCN position on governance of PAs, currently included as part of the forthcoming revised version of the IUCN Best Practice Guidelines on PA categories (and governance types).
Influencing national protected area policy towards more equitable and
effective systems of PAs, including ICCAs and transboundary connections
Among the work carried out during the last three years at a country and regional level we can single out technical support, numerous workshops and missions carried out by TILCEPA members for Madagascar, Senegal, the Asean region, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Mauritania, China, Italy, France, Queensland, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, Vietnam and other countries.
Understanding, Strengthening and Promoting Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs)
Regional reviews of ICCA status and needs have been carried out in Eastern/Central Africa; the SW China Biodiversity Hotspot; Mesoamerica; and the Arctic tundra region. Further reviews are underway in West/Central Asia, the Maghreb, the Andes and the South Pacific. Reports, cases studies
and information on various aspects of ICCAs are available from
www.ICCAforum.org and will be used as a background for further discussions at regional and global events like the World Conservation Congress (WCC) in 2008.
Task Force on Protected Areas, Equity and Livelihoods
A new Task Force addresses social equity and poverty concerns in the
conceptualisation and management of protected areas. The Task Force will help tooperationalize the recommendation on Protected Areas and Poverty endorsed by the 2003 World Parks Congress. The Task Force has held 3 regional meetings and is consolidating its workplan for the next few years.
Tracking the Implementation of CBD Programme of Work, in particular
with regard to community involvement in PA governance and Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas.
TILCEPA has initiated a survey to keep track of what is happening in some
countries, through voluntary inputs from members who are familiar with policy/legal developments. A database of 15 countries has so far been put together, and is available at www.ICCAforum.org
Regional Learning Networks
TILCEPA and the Theme on Governance, Equity, and Rights (TGER) are collaborating on a Regional Learning Network for co-management of PAs with indigenous peoples in South East Asia and a Regional Learning Network for co-management of marine PAs in West Africa.
Improved training for PA professionals
TILCEPA members are active developing a new curriculum for PA managers in West Africa and testing it at both classroom and field level in Morocco.
- 2nd Meeting of the CBD AdHoc Working Group on Protected Areas (Rome, February 2008)
- CBD 9th Conference of the Parties (Bonn, May 2008)
World Conservation Congress, Bangkok 2004
At the World Conservation Congress (WCC) at
- A Workshop on 'Community Governance for Conservation: moving forward',
- Training sessions on 'International Agreements on Protected Areas and Community Based Conservation',
- Knowledge Marketplace on 'Human-Wildlife Coexistence: Global Perspectives to Improve Local Efforts '
- Workshop on 'Mobility, Livelihoods, and Biodiversity'
- Dance for the Earth Performance,
- Global Synthesis Workshop on 'Institutional and policy responses to the link between poverty and conservation within the context of the Millennium Development Goals'
- Panel on 'Poverty and Parks - A global assessment of the social impact of Protected Areas',
- Press conference on 'Can Communities Replace Guns, Guards, and Fences? : The Trend towards Community Based Conservation'
TILCEPA partnered with Equator Initiative (EI) of the UNDP to organise a space (the Community Mubaan) for community representatives at the WCC. Members of TILCEPA came together in a meeting to evaluate the performance of TILCEPAin the last four years, and to chart out future directions for the next term.
TILCEPA also contributed to the motions, listed below, on issues relating to its mandate, which have all been approved at the Member's Business Assembly.
- Resolution on Community Conserved areas
- Resolution on Governance of Natural Resources
- Resolution on Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas and the CBD Programme of Work
- Resolution on Promoting Food Sovereignty to Conserve Biodiversity and End Hunger
- Resolution on
- Resolution on a Landscape/seascape approach to conservation
Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Kuala Lumpur, 2004
The seventh Conference of Parties (COP7) of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) was held between 9th and 20th February 2004 in
World Parks Congress, Durban, 2003
The Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA), under the auspices of IUCN WCPA/CEESP, contributed to one of the most exciting and cutting-edge processes at the Vth World Parks Congress: the mainstreaming of community and equity issues. Many of the key outputs of the Congress reflect the increasing commitment of the conservation community to respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including minority peoples, and to working with these constituencies for the more effective conservation of cultural and biological diversity.
The main Congress outcomes and outputs that the TILCEPA contributed to included:
• Recognition that biodiversity conservation has a much longer history than government-designated protected areas; in particular that traditional ecosystem management systems of indigenous and mobile peoples and other local communities have helped to conserve cultural and biological diversity across landscapes and seascapes;
• Recognition that Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) – including indigenous protected areas, mobile peoples’ territories, village wetlands and watersheds, marine and fisheries reserves, and others – are a legitimate and effective means of conservation. In particular, the importance of providing a formal legal status and public acknowledgement of the role of CCAs in conserving critical biodiversity elements, providing linkages across the land and seascape, filling gaps in conservation coverage, and providing cultural, livelihood, and political security to millions of people was recognized;
• Recognition that government-managed protected areas should move towards collaborative management by providing relevant indigenous and mobile peoples and local communities with full and equitable participation in decision-making;
• Recognition that several governance types for PAs can be effective and should be recognised as legitimate and desirable; as a matter of fact a combination of governance types in a PA system can be most useful to enlarge its global coverage, promote better connectivity among individual PAs, promote the efficient use of resources and enhance the ties between peoples and nature.
• Recognition of the need for restitution of rights and responsibilities to indigenous and mobile peoples and local communities, and compensation for past injustices, to be addressed in national and international systems, including through the creation of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission Regarding Protected Areas and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’;
• Recognition that cultural diversity and cultural survival are key objectives and strategies for protected areas, including in administrative guidance relating to the IUCN Protected Area categories;
• Recognition that the costs and benefits of protected areas need to be more equitably distributed, including through securing of local livelihoods and revenues, reducing damage by wildlife, addressing poverty and resource deprivation, and encouraging ecologically and culturally sensitive tourism managed by communities. Impoverishment in terms of resource deprivation was recognized as one of the root causes of biodiversity loss and therefore as meriting far greater attention;
• Recognition that by addressing human-wildlife conflict issues, through coordinated global, national, regional and local action, the conservation community will be able to more successfully conserve protected areas and wildlife, mitigate the economic and social costs to local communities and thus recognize benefits beyond boundaries;
• Promoting positive linkages between sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation, especially building on traditional, biodiverse farming, pastoralism, and fisheries, that help to maintain ecosystem services, corridors and wildlife refuges;
• Promoting positive linkages between mobile lifestyles and biodiversity conservation, in particular with regard to the maintenance of habitats and bio-cultural corridors in the landscape.
• Understanding and facilitating community-based approaches to livelihood security and sustainable development, as an alternative to the destructive path of development that is dominant today.
PUBLICATIONS AUTHORED, EDITED OR CO- AUTHORED/EDITED BY TILCEPA MEMBERS
TILCEPA has brought out various publications in 2004, often in partnership with other organizations, as also contributed chapters and articles to other publications, and created tools for advocacy such as policy briefing notes.
Books and full issues of journals
Abrams, P., Borrini-Feyerabend,G., Gardner, J. and Heylings,P. Evaluating Governance: A Handbook to Accompany a Participatory Process for a Protected Area, manuscript, Parks Canada & TILCEPA, 2003.
Balasinorwala, T., A. Kothari, and M. Goyal, (compilers), Participatory Conservation: Paradigm Shifts in International Policy. IUCN/TILCEPA/Kalpavriksh, Pune, 2004.
Borrini-Feyerabend, G. and Sandwith,T. (eds.) Parks 13 (1), Special issue on Conservation Partnerships in Africa, 2003.
Borrini-Feyerabend, G., De Sherbinin, A., Diaw, C.,
Borrini-Feyerabend, G, Kothari, A., and
Borrini-Feyerabend G., Pimbert, M.,. Farvar, M. T., Kothari, A. and Renard, Y. with Jaireth, H., Murphree,M., Pattemore, V., Ramirez, R.and Warren,P. - with a preface by Maldonado,J. M. Sharing Power: Learning by doing in Co-Management of Natural Resources throughout the World. IIED and IUCN/CEEESP/CMWG, Cenesta, Teheran, 2004.
Chatelain, C., Taty, M., and Borrini-Feyerabend, G. Tchim Tchieto: Fierté de la Cogestion!, CEESP Occasional Paper no.2, 2004.
Esteban, N. Guidelines for pro-poor management of
Jaireth, H., and Smyth, D. (eds.), Innovative Governance: Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Protected Areas, Saxena,
Scherl, L.,
Solís Rivera, V., Madrigal Cordero, P., Cruz, I.V., and Fonseca Borras, M., Equidad entre Áreas Protegidas y Comunidades Locales: Reflexión desde Mesoamérica y el Caribe, IUCN, CEESP/ CMWG/ TILCEPA, Ivo, Solidar, GTZ, Avina, San José de Costa Rica, 2003.
Vaske, J., and Manfredo[GBF1] , M. Human Dimensions of Wildlife., Vol 9, Number 4, 2004.
Whande, W., Kepe, T., and Murphree, M. (eds.), Local Communities, Equity and Conservation in
Updated versions of Briefing Notes (Governance of Protected Areas, Mobile Peoples and Conservation. The note on Governance was also modified and printed specially for the Central American region, as Good Governance and Equity.
A two-set CD compilation of over 140 papers related to the theme of communities and equity presented at the Vth World Parks Congress, Durban, 2003 is now availabel.
Articles for the CBD Secretariat
Borrini-Feyerabend, G., "Governance of Protected Areas, Participation and Equity" in Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Biodiversity Issues for Consideration in the Planning, Establishment and Management of Protected Areas Sites and Networks, CBD Technical Series no. 15, Montreal (Canada), 2004.
Kothari, A., "Protected Areas and People: Participation and Equity", in Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ibid.
Contributions on participation, equity, and PAs, by G. Borrini-Feyerabend and A. Kothari, to UNEP/WCMC/CBD, Protected Areas and Biodiversity: An Overview of Key Issues, ed. By K.J. Mulongoy and S. Chape. 2004.
Chapters for Status of the World's Parks Report
'Collaborative management of protected areas', by G. Borrini-Feyerabend and A. Kothari
'Community conserved areas', by A. Kothari and G. Borrini-Feyerabend
Other outputs in which TILCEPA has played a key role were
Nine recommendations that were outputs for the World Parks Congress addressing various aspects of people and parks . These are
1. Indigenous people and protected areas
2. Co-management of protected areas
3. Community Conserved Areas
4. Mobile indigenous peoples and conservation
5. Poverty and protected areas
6. Cultural and spiritual values of protected areas
7. Preventing and Mitigating human-wildlife conflicts
8. Good governance of protected areas
9. Recognising and Supporting a Diversity of Governance Types for Protected Areas
Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Co-chair, gbf@cenesta.org
Ashish Kothari, Co-chair, ashishkothari@vsnl.com
Tasneem Balasinorwala, tilcepa@vsnl.net
Contact details:
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh
Apt No. 5, Shree Dutta Krupa
908, Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004,
Ph/fax: 91-22-5654239
e-mail: ashish@nda.vsnl.net.in
Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend
Ancienne Ecole, Bugnaux
CH 1180
Ph/fax: 41-21-826 0024
e-mail: gbf@cenesta.org
For general queries please write to Tasneem Balasinorwala, tilcepa@vsnl.net . For those of you who may not have easy access to the web please feel free to write in to Ashish or Grazia to ask for further information.
