These principles, guidelines and case studies respond to WCC Resolution 1.53 on Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas, adopted at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Montreal, October, 1996, which
“requests the Director General, the Secretariat and technical programmes, Commissions, members, and Councillors of IUCN, within available resources, to endorse, support, participate in and advocate the development and implementation of a clear policy in relation to protected areas established in indigenous lands and territories”. (for full text, see Annex 1 in Part A).
Resolution 1.53 is based on recommendations from the IV World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas (Caracas, Venezuela, 1992), calling for the development of policies for protected areas that safeguard the interests of indigenous peoples, and take into account customary resource practices and traditional land tenure systems.
While the process of developing this document was accelerated after the resolution from Montreal, work began in 1995 between the IUCN Co-ordinator for Indigenous Peoples, the Programme on Protected Areas, and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). In parallel, WWF had been developing their own ideas, building on a series of regional and national workshops with indigenous peoples' organisations. Since many of the same issues emerged in both the WWF and IUCN consultations on this subject, it was decided to work together in developing a common position. The principles and guidelines were adopted by IUCN and WWF during 1999. They are presented as Part A of this publication.
In order to fill out this advice, and demonstrate the many ways in which indigenous peoples and protected areas interact in practice, a set of eleven case studies was prepared at the request of IUCN by the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Substantial support for this work was offered by WWF International, who contributed information and draft texts for several case studies. The results of this work are presented in Part B.
Adrian Phillips
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