For decades Indigenous peoples’ organisations were members as part of the civil society category at IUCN. But at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2016, the IUCN Members Assembly adopted a landmark decision for indigenous peoples and conservation. Members voted to create a new category of IUCN membership for Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations (IPO), strengthening the recognition of their rights, participation, voice and role in IUCN.
As a distinct and mobilised constituency within IUCN, IPO Members have can benefit from the self-determined indigenous peoples’ strategy that identifies joint priorities for advancing their rights and issues in conservation and engaging with each other and within IUCN moving forward. These priorities focus particularly on leveraging IUCN’s convening power, knowledge generation, standard setting and policy engagement in regard to indigenous issues.
