As climate change continues to be one of the existential threats to humanity, local communities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) often experience acceleration and/or intensification of its impacts due to their small land area, susceptibility to natural disasters, geographical isolation, limited natural resources and sensitive ecosystems.     In Cape Verde, the Santiago Island is the nation's largest island, is home to 50% of the nations’ population and is the most important agriculture center. The São Lourenço dos Órgãos municipality  is located in the center of Sa...

The purpose of the toolkit is to complement ongoing efforts to build capacity of ICCAs as they gain greater recognition on a global scale.This toolkit highlights the diverse approaches that communities use to manage their own areas and combines the manifold of conservation tools developed for community-based organizations who live in particular habitats and/or are facing specific threats (linked to climate change or extractive industries) as well as those developed for protected area managers, practitioners and government agencies. 

The ICCA toolkit was intitally published in English in 2013.  It is now available in Spanish and French. The toolkit documents sixteen case studies and highlights innovative tools and approaches developed to help local communities address critical challenges that affect their natural and cultural resources. It includes a diverse set of resources organized around five key themes (documentation, management planning, monitoring and evaluation, communication, and finance and values). The publication also offers a suite of tools to support the effectiveness and viability of ICCAs as governance...

The UN Special Rapporteur, Mr. John Knox, presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and its correlationn to the human rights obligations relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. In his report, he describes the importance of ecosystem services and biodiversity for the full enjoyment of human rights and outlines the application of human rights obligations to biodiversity-related actions.