IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN WCPA Governance, Equity and Rights Specialist Group

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Overview and description

Description:

The Governance, Equity & Rights Specialist Group elevates equity and rights in protected area governance. The Group fosters, coordinates and actively engages its members in initiatives that take to ...

The Governance, Equity & Rights Specialist Group elevates equity and rights in protected area governance. The Group fosters, coordinates and actively engages its members in initiatives that take to practice the strategic directions and recommendations that emerge from the Resolutions and outcomes of IUCN World Conservation Congresses and World Parks Congresses.

Group leadership

Mr Philip FRANKS

Chair
Email: phil.franks@iied.orgPhil Franks is an expert on the social…

Email: phil.franks@iied.org
Phil Franks is an expert on the social dimension of natural resource management and conservation, with a particular focus on better understanding and applying social equity principles in this context. His particular expertise and experience lies in conservation and human-wellbeing/poverty, natural resource governance, REDD+, and climate-smart agriculture, especially in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. He is currently working on the development of stakeholder-led methods for assessing the social impacts of protected areas and their governance, equity in conservation, links between conservation and development, managing trade-offs between conservation and food production in Africa, and social and environmental safeguards.


Mr Terence HAY-EDIE

Chair
Email: terence.hay-edie@undp.orgTerence Hay-Edie is an…

Email: terence.hay-edie@undp.org
Terence Hay-Edie is an international sustainable development professional with over 20 years of progressively senior management experience in the following fields: environmental finance (primary focus on the Global Environment Facility), grant-making, human rights, development of social and environmental safeguards, social justice, CSO coalition-building, community-based adaptation to climate change, protection of traditional knowledge, natural capital valuation, biodiversity and ecosystems, production landscapes and seascapes through appropriate recognition, and management and governance arrangements. He has an interdisciplinary background in human and ecological sciences, and management, with extensive field experience in over 100 countries in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe & CIS, Arab States and Latin America.

Dr Heidi KRETSER

Co-Chair
Email: hkretser@wcs.orgAs a Senior Conservation Social Scientist with the…

Email: hkretser@wcs.org
As a Senior Conservation Social Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Conservation Program, Heidi improves the conservation of wildlife and wildlands by incorporating tools and perspectives from the social sciences into applied conservation research, planning, practice, and decision-making. Her research projects and interests vary widely yet share a common thread of understanding and working with people to improve conservation outcomes. To that end, her current projects include devising strategies for reducing the impacts of private lands development and recreation on wildlife, building constituents for conservation by creating effective communication and community-engagement based on understanding people’s relationships and interactions with wildlife, and generating collaborative approaches for increasing community and natural resource governance capacity that achieve conservation outcomes for wildlife while safeguarding human well-being across diverse constituents. Heidi also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources and is affiliated with the Cornell Center for Conservation Social Sciences. Heidi is based in Saranac Lake, NY in the Adirondack Park, and serves on several boards of local conservation organizations.

At a glance

Official name:
IUCN WCPA Governance, Equity and Rights Specialist Group
Associated Commissions: