IUCN Commission for Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP), United States
The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) seeks to halt biodiversity loss by integrating a human-rights approach, offering significant benefits and challenges. Key prospects include enhanced community engagement, particularly for Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), ensuring their participation in conservation efforts and leveraging traditional knowledge. This framework also promotes accountability for governments and corporations by establishing legal standards that protect biodiversity and community rights. Additionally, it emphasizes the link between biodiversity and human well-being, addressing social issues like poverty and education alongside ecological goals. Increased global awareness can foster international collaboration and attract funding for initiatives aligned with human rights.
However, challenges persist, such as political resistance from some governments concerned about sovereignty and the complexity of translating human rights into actionable policies in regions with weak governance. Balancing conservation efforts with community rights can lead to conflicts, and a lack of awareness among stakeholders further complicates implementation. Establishing clear metrics to measure the impact of this approach is also difficult.
This paper will highlight efforts being made by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission for Environmental, Economic an Social Policy (CEESP) since 2013, to develop clear metrics to measure the impact of integrating a human-rights approach to biodiversity conservation. The most significant challenge being disagreements over whether to go with qualitative or with quantitative metrics The paper uses case studies from Colombia, Indonesia, Malawi and Rwanda to illustrate its arguments. The paper shows that while a human-rights approach within the GBF presents valuable opportunities for biodiversity conservation and social equity, overcoming the challenges of integration requires not only political will, and collaboration among all stakeholders, but also epistemic dialogue and possible compromises in order to move forward together.
