Globally, CCAs are known as ICCAs or Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous People and Local Communities. ICCAs have gained international interest for their significance in the big conservation picture. It was recognized as a valid model of conservation by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in September 2003 and by the Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in February 2004. CBD’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas explicitly mandates countries to recognize ICCAs, and integrate them into national protected area systems (https://www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-07). The World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme, which maintains a database of all the protected areas across the world, also maintains a database of ICCAs (www.ICCAregistry.org). Global coverage of ICCAs has been conservatively estimated to be comparable to that of governments’ protected areas, i.e. about 13% of the terrestrial surface of the planet. Globally, 400-800 million hectares of forest are owned/administered by communities, and land and resources in other ecosystems are also under community control. By no means are all of them effectively conserved and secured , but a substantial number are.
Kalpavriksh is a founding member of the ICCA Consortium (International Consortium on ICCAs) which provides international and national support for ICCAs. After the pioneering documentation of CCAs in India in 2009, Kalpavriksh, on behalf of the ICCA Consortium, coordinated a global study of ICCA recognition and support of territories and areas conserved by indigenous people and local communities. This was published by the CBD Secretariat as its Technical Series 64. It includes 19 Country Level case studies, a global overview, and various resource materials.