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Towards a CCA alliance
In the last five years, IUCN professional networks such as TILCEPA, TGER and TSL and their partners have been implementing initiatives to deepen understanding of the CCA concept. These initiatives have included dedicated meetings and workshops, side-events at international conventions, regional reviews, national surveys of policy and legislation, and in-depth case studies. During a recent international workshop on CCAs, the results of these intiatives were discussed by some 30 conservation professionals. The participants identified the need to build upon IUCN’s existing networks and develop a broadly-based worldwide alliance in support of CCAs.
The participants in the workshop developed a consensus around the need to gather and disseminate information, coordinate discussion among a broad spectrum of actors in civil society, and promote the development of a consensus and consequent action for policy and practice in support of CCAs. They referred to this initiative as a process nourishing a civil society alliance for Community Conserved Areas. The specific objectives of the initiative include:
- To promote better understanding of CCAs – their current status, their benefits for both biological conservation and human wellbeing, the threats facing them, and their region- and culture-specific needs for recognition and support.
- To understand what existing networks are working on CCAs in different ways and in different regions and engage with these
- To facilitate information gathering and dissemination, and discussion of implications and options for CCA policy and practice, including through consultations and workshops with local and indigenous communities.
- From the above, to facilitate on going syntheses of recommendations and support their delivery and discussion at appropriate national, regional and international fora.
- To promote the adoption of recommendations for CCA policy and practice through various forms of action by civil society.
The initiative will act in a decentralised manner, on the basis of the engagement and capacities of the participants in the evolving alliance. Such participants will include community-based organisations, indigenous bodies, non-governmental organisations, and other concerned bodies, groups and individuals. Members will recruit other members and promote a broad-based analysis and discussion of the CCA concept, values and limitations— in particular among concerned local and indigenous communities and supporting NGOs.
Side-by-side with this decentralised process, several international policy events in 2008 will act as stepping stones towards syntheses of recommendations for policy and practice. The events identified in Kastamonou as appropriate to play that role include:
- The Meeting of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (Rome, February 2008)
- The International Conference Resilience 2008, including a Meeting of the Resilience Alliance (Stockholm, May 2008)
- The Ninth Conference of the Parties to the CBD (Bonn, May 2008)
- The International Congress of Ethnobiology (Cuzco, June 2008)
- The Society for Conservation Biology annual conference (Chattanooga, July 2008)
- The Fourth World Conservation Congress (Barcelona, October 2008)
The initiative will organise side events and workshops at such international gatherings, whereby the organisations and individuals who are members of the evolving CCA alliance will find a space to deliver and discuss recommendations. The members will also diffuse information among other participants at the gatherings and thus promote a broad awareness of the CCA phenomenon and its needs. The process will lead to a special session dedicated to CCAs at the Fourth World Conservation Congress (October 2008) where the potential future of the alliance will be examined, and where various forms of action by civil society will be decided upon.
The initiative will be coordinated by a secretariat comprising an Executive Officer and a voluntary Board of Advisors to oversee activities. The secretariat will provide a focal point for networking, collate and disseminate information and organize local, national, regional and international events. The initiative will be implemented under the institutional umbrella of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP).
TILCEPA= IUCN Strategic direction on Governance, Communities, Equity, and Livelihood Rights in Relation to Protected Areas (Joint theme between CEESP and WCPA, the World Commission on Protected areas); TGER= CEESP Theme on Governance, Equity and Rights; TSL= CEESP Theme on Sustainable Livelihoods
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