Advancing Women's Land Rights in Collective Contexts and the Achievement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF):

Why the Recognition and Protection of Women’s Collective Territorial Rights and Customary Tenure Systems Is Necessary for the Implementation of the KMGB

Experiences and guidance from Indigenous women and women in collective rights contexts

Organisers

• Forest Peoples Programme (FPP)
• UN CBD Secretariat
• International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB)
• Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network (IWBN)
• CBD Women’s Caucus
• Ogiek Peoples’ Development Programme (OPDP)
• Chepkitale Indigenous People Development Programme (CIDIP)
• Resguardo Indígena de Origen Colonial Cañamomo Lomaprieta
• Partners for Indigenous Knowledge Philippines (PIKP)
• Akar Global Initiative
• Wapichan Wiizi Women’s Movement of the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC)

Event Overview

As State parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) work to implement the KMGBF, including its commitments on the recognition of Indigenous and traditional territories and gender-responsive implementation, this side event will support these efforts by presenting a study that was led by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) in collaboration with 15 partner organisations. This study, focused on gender, collective tenure rights, and their significance for achieving the aims of the CBD, examines the critical importance of Indigenous and traditional territories for the realisation of rights for Indigenous women and other women in communities with collective land rights. The study draws on interviews with women collective rightsholders – who are key contributors to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and climate resilience – and experts across multiple regions including the Arctic and tropically forested countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

This event will present the study’s key findings, with presentations from the lead author and women knowledge-holders who contributed to the research, highlighting the diversity of experiences of women within collective tenure systems, and drawing attention to the importance of protecting collective territorial rights and customary tenure systems as part of States’ duties to uphold women’s land rights. It will also provide an opportunity to examine the legal and policy implications of these State duties and related commitments in the context of COP17 negotiations on Article 8(j), including the development of guidelines for the implementation of Targets 2 and 3 of the KMGBF on Indigenous and traditional territories, and the implementation of the Gender Plan of Action and its objective of strengthening women’s rights to land and natural resources.  

Drawing on the experiences of women knowledge-holders and collective rightsholders who contributed to the study, the event will examine how collective tenure systems shape women’s access to, use of, and decision-making over land and natural resources, the modalities of their participation in collective decisions around territorial and biodiversity governance, and what this means for the realisation of a range of fundamental rights, including their economic, cultural, social and environmental rights and the right to self-determination.

Objectives 

• To launch and present findings from the study led by FPP and their partner organisations on women’s land rights in collective contexts
• To contribute insights and evidence from women collective rightsholders themselves on what securing women’s equal rights to land, territories and natural resources practically means in collective land rights settings, and its implications for the implementation of the KMGBF (in particular, Targets 3, 22 and 23 and the Gender Plan of Action)
• To foster dialogue between women collective rightsholders, researchers, and COP17 participants on how collective tenure rights can be better reflected in the implementation of states’ commitments under the CBD and the KMGBF
• To strengthen connections between the gender justice and Indigenous and local community rights agendas within the CBD process, by demonstrating the centrality of collective tenure to the realisation of women’s land rights

About the Study

The study aims to document and amplify women’s perspectives on land rights within collective rights frameworks through interviews undertaken with Indigenous women and other women with collective land rights. By foregrounding the experiences of Indigenous women and other women with collective land rights, the research aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of women’s land rights in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other Rio conventions, where individualistic approaches to property and land rights tend to dominate. The study will explore the relationship between the recognition and/or protection of collective territorial rights and customary tenure systems and the effective enjoyment of territorial and other fundamental rights by Indigenous women and other women with collective land rights. The study will seek to understand and highlight the diverse ways that customary tenure systems support (or constrain) the livelihoods, wellbeing, and agency of Indigenous women and other women in land-dependent communities across multiple regions, while also documenting any context-specific challenges women face in participating in traditional territorial governance systems and preferred strategies for overcoming these barriers from interviewees’ perspectives. In so doing, the study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of what securing women’s equal rights to land, territories and natural resources practically means in collective land rights settings — and how this can be achieved from the perspectives of women collective rightsholders themselves — a topic that remains underdeveloped in current Rio Convention policy frameworks.