ICCA Consortium General Assembly

Ashish Kothari grouping participants' strategic visions.

The Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA) Consortium held its first official General Assembly and a strategy meeting on October 24 in Nagoya. During the first half of the meeting, Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend (Consortium coordinator) and Ashish Kothari (Kalpavriksh) presented an overview of how the concept of ICCAs has evolved over time in policy and practice, what is the current situation, and what are the main challenges and opportunities. Maurizio Farhan Ferrari (Forest Peoples Programme) illustrated the key provisions for ICCAs in the draft Decisions currently being considered by the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10).

During the General Assembly, Taghi Farvar (CENESTA, Consortium president), Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend (coordinator), and Stan Stevens (treasurer) presented their respective reports. Participants discussed concerns and suggestions with the statues that had been provisionally adopted when the Consortium was registered as a non-profit association in Switzerland in July. A small team of Consortium members volunteered to propose concrete changes to the Statues to circulate over email to the other members. The whole group then deliberated long-term visions and strategic priorities for the next few years, particularly in light of collaboration with the CBD, UNEP-WCMC, IUCN-WCPA, GEF-SGP, and GTZ. Among other things, Natural Justice is exploring our role in progressing the global ICCA legal review and supporting the future development of guidelines for legal recognition of ICCAs.