Day 1 - Gathering in the Gully

Managers of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA) from all over the world came together to share experiences in the “Gathering in the Gully” held in the Blue Mountains close to Sydney from Sunday the 9th to Tuesday the 11th of November 2014. The WIN was a partner to this gathering organized by the ICCA Consortium and other organizations. Community representatives shared experiences and mapped strategies to make their voices heard at the World Parks Congress starting right after immediately after the gathering. The meeting also served as the General Assembly of the ICCA Consortium, a reflection of the successes of past years and discussions to determine the future.

 

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Day 2 - Introductory Session hosted by the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy

 

The session was a preparation meeting for local and indigenous community representatives to ensure maximum success of their participation in the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014. Representatives of 70 indigenous and local communities from around the world were present.

 

 

 

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Day 3 - Welcome to WIN & Pacific Community Dialogue Pavilion

Alejandra Pero, WIN Coordinator and Ruci Botei from IUCN Oceania, humbly welcomed attendees to the opening of the WIN & Pacific Community Dialogues Pavilion. Mikaela Jade from Paramodic based in Australia, commenced the opening by paying respect to the traditional owners of the land. Lucy Mulenkei, who manages the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) in Kenya, began the session by explaining how recent technology has been used to empower local and indigenous communities to track their lands and natural resources.

 

 

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 Day 4 - WIN Dialogue: Outcome of UNSIDS, WCIP, and CBD CoP12

This session reflected on three major conferences of the past few months, and discussed how they complemented one another. These include the UN Conference on Small Island Developing States , the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and CoP 12 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP12). Mikaela Jade of Paramodic encouraged the audience to try to understand what types of data are being collected, by whom, and how indigenous peoples and local communities can retain ownership over the data collected.

 

 

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Days 5 - Human Rights in Conservation: Progress Since Durban, Conservation Initiative on Human Rights

The session reflected on the progress made with the Durban Conservation Initiative on Human Rights, launched at the last World Parks Congress in 2003. The partners to this initiative have published a white paper to reflect on developments since the Initiative’s inception.

 

 

 

 

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Days 6 - Community-based Social and Ecological Resilience: Toward an Operational Framework

A group of 30 participants met to better understand the range of definitions and key aspects of “resilience” at the community level. The interactive workshop was co-organized by UNDP and the Stockholm Resilience Center, and facilitated by Million Belay from MELCA, Ethiopia.

 

 

 

 

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Days 7 - WIN Dialogue: Outcomes from the Gathering in the Gully: Pre-conference Workshop

The session was a reflection on the consultations during the “Gathering in the Gully”, a pre-conference workshop held in the Blue Mountains. In an open dialogue, participants shared their experiences. Eli Enns from the ICCA Consortium stressed that “reconnecting with ourselves is significant”. Indigenous peoples and local communities are affected by a concept built into the idea of protected areas – the idea of disconnecting humanity from nature. While this is outdated, we do need to change our relationship with the planet: “Conservation is the outcome of a respectful relationship with nature.”

 

 

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