Displacement of indigenous peoples

Governments have established protected areas/parks to protect land and conserve biodiversity. Many of these protected areas include indigenous lands and territories. The establishment of protected areas often displaces indigenous communities from their homes, disrupting their livelihoods and culture.
As a result, the traditional knowledge of local people about how best to conserve nature in these areas is also lost.

Nº 21


  • Wildlife & Nature Conservation
  • Protection of Nature
  • Creation of Protected Areas
some attempts made
past case
Region-1
Region-2
Region-3
Region-4
ongoing case
no attempts made

Displacement of indigenous peoples

Governments have established protected areas/parks to protect land and conserve biodiversity. Many of these protected areas include indigenous lands and territories. The establishment of protected areas often displaces indigenous communities from their homes, disrupting their livelihoods and culture.
As a result, the traditional knowledge of local people about how best to conserve nature in these areas is also lost.

A study of three different conservation governance regimes in the Peruvian Amazon found that both indigenous territories and civil society and private conservation concessions were, on average, more effective in reducing forest degradation and deforestation than state-controlled protected areas. It also found that the variation in effectiveness was greater for these two alternative conservation regimes.

Schleicher, J., Peres, C. A., Amano, T., Llactayo, W., & Leader-Williams, N. (2017). Conservation performance of different conservation governance regimes in the Peruvian Amazon. Scientific reports, 7(1), 1-10.

WWF. (2000). Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations Experiences in Collaboration. https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/indigenous_conservation.pdf

Dawson, N. M., Coolsaet, B., Sterling, E. J., Loveridge, R., Gross-Camp, N. D., Wongbusarakum, S., … & Rosado-May, F. J. (2021). The role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in effective and equitable conservation. Ecology and Society, Resilience Alliance, 26 (3). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12625-260319

Vidal, J. (2016, August 28). The tribes paying the brutal price of conservation. The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/28/exiles-human-cost-of-conservation-indigenous-peoples-eco-tourism

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