BISHKEK (TCA) — The Issyk-Kul event on June 11-16, organized by the UNDP GEF SGP in Kyrgyzstan, the ICCA Consortium and CENESTA (Iran), will be held in Kyrgyzstan to share knowledge and enhance capacities among key regional actors about how to promote and strengthen appropriate recognition of Indigenous peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs) and appropriate support to them to enhance their effectiveness in the region, the ICCA Consortium said.
Participants will include teams from Georgia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Jordan, composed of representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities who govern and manage their ICCAs, relevant government agencies, supporting civil society organisations and national GEF SGP coordinators. A few participants from other countries where ICCA support may be effectively “seeded” may also attend. Overall, the event anticipates forty participants.
The main goals for the event are the following:
– Shared understanding of ICCAs as territorial units—land, water and natural resources—essential for community livelihoods and identity and governed de facto (and possibly de jure) by their concerned communities as spaces of sustainable livelihoods and integration of various “sectors” (forests, water, wildlife, agriculture, animal husbandry, marine and coastal).
– Shared understanding of the main ICCA types and characteristics in Central and West Asia, the conditions (scale/ size, safeguards, threats and opportunities) they face and a range of appropriate responses to such conditions at different levels.
– Shared understanding of ICCAs as a form of governance for protected areas as well as conserved areas relevant to fulfilling national obligations for the Convention on Biological Diversity.
– Motivation, ideas, mutual advice and specific plans to further appropriate ICCA recognition and support at national level and—as appropriate—to support regional ICCA learning and action in Central and West Asia.
The major sponsor of the Issyk-Kul event is the Global ICCA Support Initiative (GSI) financed by the German Ministry of the Environment, and implemented by UNDP GEF SGP and the ICCA Consortium. Key partners include: the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP WCMC), the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Global Programme on Protected Areas (IUCN GPAP), the ICCA Consortium and the Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD).
The ICCA Consortium is an international association dedicated to promoting the appropriate recognition of, and support to, the territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities (ICCAs). Its 109 Members and nearly 300 honorary members in more than 75 countries are indigenous peoples’ organisations and federations, community organisations, and civil society organisations working closely with them.
