What is the IUCN CEESP Natural Resource Governance Framework (NRGF)?
Our story starts at the 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea, where CEESP was mandated to design a natural resource governance framework to guide and measure progress in conservation actions. In 2013, and with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the full support and participation of the IUCN Secretariat, the IUCN CEESP NRGF working group was born.
The NRGF is an IUCN knowledge platform designed to deliver a rigorous, rights-based inclusive framework for assessing and improving natural resource governance at multiple levels and in diverse contexts. It sets clear standards and guidance to help decision-makers and practitioners ensure fair, accountable, and effective management of natural resources, advancing rights, equity, ecological sustainability, and the just distribution of nature’s benefits.
The NRGF has developed through three phases: research, consultation, and conceptual development; consolidation; and testing of diverse ways it can be used including:
- Assessing strengths and challenges in governance of a context or system and identifying pathways for change.
- Analysing ways to align / enhance environmental governance-related approaches and tools
- Analysing ways that conservation activities / projects can enhance how governance principles are addressed
The NRGF is built on a central Framework with values, principles, and criteria to inform natural resource governance. It also includes guidance tools, processes, and relationships, through which the NRGF is mobilising and learning from use of the framework. You can learn more about how the NRGF has been used in the NRGF Knowledge Products section below.
