The Indigenous World 2025: UN Environment Programme – Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders

Written on 25 April 2025. Posted in Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Background^[6]

There is widespread recognition today of the importance of respecting, protecting, and fulfilling human rights – particularly the rights of Indigenous Peoples – in conservation efforts. Already in 2003, the IUCN World Parks Congress, the most important global forum for setting international standards and guidelines for protected areas, announced a “New Paradigm for Protected Areas” that emphasized the need to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in biodiversity conservation.^[7] This important shift in the approach to conservation was adopted in response to growing public opinion that conventional protected area models wrongly excluded or marginalized Indigenous Peoples and other rights-holders from their governance and management. In 2004, the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP) adopted a decision stating that “the establishment, management and monitoring of protected areas should take place with the full and effective participation of, and full respect for the rights of, Indigenous and local communities consistent with national law and applicable international obligations.”^[8] In 2009, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and seven other major conservation organizations launched the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights (CIHR),^[9] committing to respect and promote human rights within the scope of their conservation programmes and not to contribute to infringements of human rights while pursuing their mission. In addition, many conservation organizations have adopted specific commitments to respect human rights, including in particular the rights of Indigenous Peoples.^[10]

Most recently, at COP15 in December 2022, the Parties to the CBD reaffirmed their commitment to a human rights-based approach to conservation when they adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The KMGBF, which calls for the designation of at least 30% of the planet’s land and sea areas for conservation by 2030, recognizes the “important roles and contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity and partners in the conservation, restoration and sustainable use” and underlines the importance of ensuring that their rights are respected and given effect to in the implementation of the Framework.^[11]

However, despite these commitments, human rights violations and abuses continue to occur frequently in the creation and administration of protected areas and other conservation initiatives. Indigenous Peoples and other populations and communities in situations of vulnerability and marginalization are particularly affected, as rights violations intersect with historical patterns of exclusion and discrimination.

In 2016, the then UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, reported that, since 2001, she and her predecessors had “received numerous allegations of large-scale violations of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of conservation measures,” with the effects of forced displacement from protected areas including “marginalization, poverty, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, extrajudicial killings, and disrupted links with spiritual sites and denial of access to justice and remedy.”^[12]

In early 2019, BuzzFeed News and the Kathmandu Post began publishing a series of articles drawing attention to alleged human rights abuses by eco-guards in protected areas supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Africa and Asia.^[13] An independent expert panel commissioned by WWF to review allegations that it was involved in the abuses found no evidence that WWF officials were intentionally encouraging the human rights abuses but concluded that WWF, until recently, had not taken adequate steps to fulfill its responsibility to prevent, respond to, and remedy alleged human rights abuses.^[14] Similar investigations carried out around the same time by the UNDP Social and Environmental Compliance Unit and the U.S. Department of the Interior found evidence of major human rights abuses in protected areas supported by conservation organizations, as well as a lack of effective oversight by the funders, including international organizations such as UN Development Programme (UNDP) and government agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.^[15]

In 2022, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, reported that “Indigenous Peoples across the globe have overall not seen a concrete improvement in the realization of their rights in the context of conservation initiatives” since the 2016 report by his predecessor.^[16] He observed that “the exclusionary approach to protecting biodiversity known as ‘fortress conservation’ continued to prevail and had led to violent evictions, militarized violence and the dispossession of the lands of Indigenous Peoples, who are the best stewards of nature.”^[17]

UNEP’s initiative to clarify norms in conservation and human rights

To help remedy this situation, in 2022 UNEP started an initiative to clarify the human rights standards that conservation organizations and funders should apply. This was based on the following assessment:

An important part of the problem appears to be the lack of widespread understanding of the relevant human rights norms by conservation organizations and conservation funders… Conservation organizations do not seem to share a common view of the applicable norms, and funders of conservation projects fail to ensure that their support does not inadvertently contribute to human rights abuses. It seems evident that there is a need for clear human rights guidance for both conservation organizations and major funders of conservation.^[18]

Between 2022 and 2024, UNEP convened a series of meetings that brought together representatives of Indigenous Peoples, rights-based organizations, conservation organizations, funders, and human rights experts. The former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Professor John H. Knox, was asked to develop a draft of human rights principles for conservation organizations and conservation funders that was then discussed and refined through multi-stakeholder workshops, consultations, and calls for contributions.^[19]

This process resulted in a set of ten “Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders” that was published by UNEP in October 2024 and launched at the 16^th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the CBD in Cali, Colombia. The principles have already been supported by numerous organizations and individuals, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, and many Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and human rights organizations.^[20]

Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders

As the Core Principles themselves make clear, they are not meant to create new rights or duties but rather “to reflect and clarify the existing human rights norms and standards applicable to conservation”.^[21] The Core Principles emphasize that every private conservation organization and funder has a responsibility to respect internationally-recognized human rights, including those affirmed in the International Bill of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), ILO Convention 169, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, and other relevant human rights instruments.

Drawing on the UNGPs, the first of the ten Core Principles states that every conservation organization and funder should adopt a high-level policy commitment to meet its responsibility to respect human rights, embed that commitment in its operational activities, and take effective measures to implement it in accordance with the other Core Principles.

The second principle addresses the rights of Indigenous Peoples and provides, inter alia, that every conservation organization and funder should ensure that it respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to self-determination, their rights to their traditional lands, territories, and resources, and their rights to their Indigenous knowledge. It further states that conservation organizations and funders should never undertake or support actions that adversely affect the rights of Indigenous Peoples without their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and without ensuring that they fairly and equitably share in the benefits from activities relating to their lands, territories, or resources. It also states that they should support Indigenous Peoples in exercising and advancing the realization of their rights, including where possible by providing direct funding to support their own initiatives for conservation.

The third principle states, more generally, that every conservation organization and funder should respect the rights of all communities, groups, and individuals, in particular those who may be at heightened risk of vulnerability or marginalization.

The remaining principles are more specific, again drawing on the UNGPs. Among other things, they state that every conservation organization and funder should:

• establish and implement a human rights due diligence process so that it may prevent, mitigate, and remedy any potential or actual adverse human rights impacts of its activities and relationships. Financial or other support for conservation activities should be provided only to recipients that have the capacity to meet their own responsibility to respect human rights and are effectively taking steps to fulfil that responsibility (Principle Four).
• as part of its due diligence process, engage in meaningful and inclusive consultation with those who may be adversely affected by its activities or relationships from the earliest stages (Principle Five).
• prevent potential adverse human rights impacts that it may cause or to which it may contribute and immediately cease any actual adverse impacts (Principle Six).
• provide for the effective remediation of adverse human rights impacts that it causes or to which it contributes and establish, participate in, or facilitate access to an effective and independent grievance mechanism to this end (Principle Seven).
• protect against adverse human rights impacts that result from or are linked to its relationships with governments, business enterprises, intermediaries, and others and exercise any leverage it has to prevent and mitigate such adverse human rights impacts. If recipients of financial or other support fail to effectively address human rights violations or abuses to which they contribute, the conservation organization or funder should restrict or terminate its support (Principle Eight).
• condition its support for anti-poaching and other law enforcement activities on compliance by those activities with international human rights norms and standards and restrict or terminate its support if the activities fail to comply with human rights standards (Principle Nine).
• report regularly and publicly on how it identifies, assesses, monitors, and addresses its potential and actual human rights impacts, including on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (Principle Ten).^[22]

Stefan Disko works as an Advisor for IWGIA on issues related to heritage, conservation, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. He holds an M.A. in World Heritage Studies from BTU Cottbus and an M.A. in ethnology and international law from LMU Munich.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Notes and references 

^[1] UNEP, Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders. Nairobi: UNEP, 2024. Available at https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/core-human-rights-principles-private-conservation-organizations-and-funders

^[2] Ibid., p. 1.

^[3] See John H. Knox, “Dismantling the Fortress: Reforming International Conservation,” 49 Harvard International Law Review (forthcoming 2025), https://journals.law.harvard.edu/elr/; and John H. Knox, “New set of human rights principles aims to end displacement and abuse of Indigenous people through ‘fortress conservation’,” The Conversation, 10 December 2024, https://theconversation.com/new-set-of-human-rights-principles-aims-to-end-displacement-and-abuse-of-indigenous-people-through-fortress-conservation-242891

^[4] UN Doc. CBD/COP/DEC/15/4 (19 December 2022), https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-15/cop-15-dec-04-en.pdf

^[5] Patricia Kamei-Mbote, “Foreword,” in UNEP, Core Human Rights Principles.

^[6] Much of this background information is taken from UNEP’s Concept Note for the “Workshop on Clarifying Norms in Conservation and Human Rights” at NYU Law School on 9-10 April 2024.

^[7] Durban Accord and Action Plan, adopted at the V^th IUCN World Parks Congress (8-17 September 2003). Available at https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2005-007.pdf

^[8] UN Doc. UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/VII/28 (13 April 2004), para. 22.

^[9] See http://www.thecihr.org/about. In addition to IUCN, the members of the CIHR are Birdlife International, Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International, The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, Wildlife Conservation Society, and World Wildlife Fund.

^[10] For example, the WWF had already adopted a “Statement of Principles on Indigenous Peoples and Conservation” in 1996 (reaffirmed and updated in 2008) in which it endorsed the (draft) UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

^[11] UN Doc. CBD/COP/DEC/15/4 (19 December 2022).

^[12] UN Doc. A/71/229 (29 July 2016), “Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz,” para. 51.

^[13] See The Indigenous World 2020, pp. 307 and 727; and The Indigenous World 2022, p. 789.

^[14] The report of the independent expert panel, entitled “Embedding Human Rights in Nature Conservation: From Intent to Action,” is available at https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/wwf_independent_review_/

^[15] See John H. Knox, “Dismantling the Fortress: Reforming International Conservation,” 49 Harvard International Law Review (forthcoming 2025), https://journals.law.harvard.edu/elr/

^[16] UN Doc. A/77/238 (19 July 2022), “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay – Protected areas and indigenous peoples’ rights: the obligations of States and international organizations,” para. 18.

^[17] Ibid., para. 20.

^[18] UNEP, “Concept Note: Workshop on Clarifying Norms in Conservation and Human Rights, New York, 9-10 April 2024.”

^[19] Ibid. and Patricia Kamei-Mbote, “Foreword”.

^[20] See UNEP, Core Human Rights Principles, pp. 28-29.

^[21] Ibid., p. 2.

^[22] For details see Ibid. and John H. Knox, “Dismantling the Fortress”.

Tags: Business and Human Rights , Conservation