The meeting brought together staff members from each of the CIHR member organizations – Birdlife International, Conservation International, Fauna & Flora International, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, Wildlife Conservation Society, and WWF – with human rights, indigenous, development and academic experts, including several CEESP members. The meeting objectives included sharing and building common understandings of key conservation and human rights issues, and identifying proposed areas of focus for more in-depth work going forward.

The CIHR objectives, framework of principles and implementation measures and program of work were introduced, along with an initial draft scoping paper on key issues at the intersection of conservation and human rights. Participants discussed a number of rights issues relevant to conservation, including participation in decision-making; free, prior and informed consent (FPIC); customary and statutory tenure; bio-cultural diversity; sustainable development; equitable cost and benefit sharing; displacement and access restrictions; law enforcement; and gender. With respect to each of these issues, participants discussed appropriate standards or best practices for addressing the issue in conservation contexts; practical opportunities and challenges for action; and suggestions for pursing more in depth learning. Meeting participants also identified possible priority topics for more in-depth work. The meeting closed with a review of progress, opportunities, and challenges in putting in place CIHR implementation measures.

A meeting report and draft scoping paper will be available from CIHR in the coming weeks.

For more information, please visit the CIHR website at: https://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/social_policy/scpl_cihr/