The Whakatane Mechanism: Promoting Justice in Protected Areas

Since 2003, there has been progress in global policy towards changing conservation from a model that often excluded peoples to a “new paradigm” that respects human rights and recognises that local communities are the cornerstone of healthy ecosystems. Nevertheless, the implementation of these decisions has been very patchy. In order to remedy that, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has established the Whakatane Mechanism, an initiative to assess respect for human rights in protected areas in order to address conflicts between management authorities and indigenous peoples.