Rights not "fortress conservation" key to save planet, says UN expert

Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples calls for a new, rights-based approach to conservation The United Nations Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, has released a report highly critical of the global conservation movement and calling for indigenous peoples and other local communities to have a greater say in protecting the world's forests. Titled Cornered by Protected Areas and co-authored with the US-based NGO Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the report is an explicit condemnation of "fortress conservation."What exactly is meant by that? It is "the idea that to protect forests and biodiversity, ecosystems need to function in isolation, devoid of people," the Rapporteur told the Guardian. "This model - favoured by governments for over a century - ignores the growing body of evidence that forests thrive when Indigenous Peoples remain on their customary lands and have legally recognised rights to manage and protect them." Continue reading...