30 November - 5 December 2015; Puerto López, Ecuador - ICCA-GSI organized a regional workshop in Ecuador to promote knowledge exchange among key regional actors and build their capacities in strengthening the appropriate recognition of ICCAs as well as improving its effectiveness in the region - within and outside the framework of the ICCA-GSI pilot countries. Key actors from participating countries, representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities that govern and manage their TICCAs, relevant government agencies and civil society support organizations, GEF SGP National Coordinators.

South America is home to ancient cultures, home to hundreds of millions of people and one of the regions of the world with mega-biodiversity. So it is not surprising that the subcontinent includes a huge variety of territories and areas governed, managed and preserved by its indigenous peoples and communities. These territories cover forests and mountains, marine and coastal areas, lakes and rivers, coral reefs, grasslands and watersheds. 

The workshop report is only available in Spanish.

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.