Indigenous Peoples Rights International invites you to join the webinar: “From Criminalization to Genuine Partnership: Transforming Conservation Laws to a Rights – Based Framework“
Global conservation strategies are at a pivotal crossroads. While the urgency to address biodiversity loss and the climate crisis is undeniable, the dominant exclusionary conservation paradigm—which relies on top-down, technocratic mandates—often exacerbates the exclusion, displacement, and criminalization of Indigenous Peoples. Although international frameworks, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, increasingly recognize the rights and essential role of Indigenous Peoples, a profound gap persists between these global commitments and domestic enforcement.
In countries like India, flagship initiatives such as Project Tiger have been considered successful because of increased wildlife populations, yet these gains have often been achieved at a severe human cost. Too often, Indigenous communities are marginalized or labelled “trespassers” on their ancestral lands, their traditional livelihoods criminalized, and their self-governance structures ignored.
This webinar aims to dismantle this exclusionary narrative and pivot toward a rights-based framework of partnership and stewardship. It explores the critical need to harmonize domestic environmental laws with international human rights obligations, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Research conducted by IPRI in 2021 highlighted that violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights—including threats to traditional occupations, lands, and governance—have worsened under current conservation initiatives. By bridging the divide between international human rights mechanisms and national policy, this session will provide a roadmap for legal and policy reform that treats Indigenous communities not as obstacles to be removed, but as partner in stewarding our planet’s biodiversity.
Objectives
The primary goal of this webinar is to disseminate the results of the research conducted by Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) and its partners, facilitating a dialogue on rights-based conservation.
Specific objectives:
- Elevate the voices of Indigenous communities to showcase ground-level challenges, resilient practices, and the lessons learned from current conservation policies and initiatives.
- Provide a comparative analysis of domestic environmental legislation against international human rights obligations (primarily UNDRIP) to identify critical inconsistencies and legal gaps in implementing conservation initiatives.
- Formulate actionable recommendations to align domestic legal frameworks with international standards, thereby preventing further human rights violations and fostering genuine, equitable stewardship.
