Enabling conditions for conservation on Indigenous and community lands.

Abstract

Despite increasing evidence and general acceptance in global environmental policy of the significant role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP&LC) in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, an implementation gap remains between global policy and how conservation plays out on the ground. One reason for this discrepancy may be the lack of a coherent evidence base on how best to support the contributions of IP&LC to conservation. Enabling conditions are often discussed in conservation policy, but the diverse factors that may enable or disable Indigenous and community conservation are frequently not considered in empirical studies of conservation outcomes. We explored the enabling conditions and ecological outcomes of conservation that are measured or reported in the literature on forested lands held by IP&LC and identified gaps and biases in the current knowledge base. We searched 3 bibliographic databases and screened the results for relevance against predefined inclusion criteria, reviewing 182 articles. Articles examined the effects of 20 enabling conditions on 11 ecological outcomes. The more frequently explored links were between the enabling conditions-governance and law and policy-and the outcomes-forest cover and forest quality. Key knowledge gaps were the impacts of enabling conditions on species-level outcomes and certain ecosystem services, such as soil and water quality and carbon sequestration. Priorities for future reviews include in-depth examinations of the linkages we identified and the quality of evidence that exists. Understanding how IP&LC can best be supported is a critical step in promoting rights-based approaches, as set out in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.