This article was originally shared by IUCN.

Yerevan, Armenia – 21 October 2026 (IUCN). A new guide has been published today on the margins of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) providing guidance to ecosystem restoration project practitioners to better integrate the needs, priorities, knowledge, wellbeing and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in restoration initiatives.

Responding to the crucial target to undertake restoration on 30 per cent of degraded lands, this guide is designed to assist restoration practitioners and includes over 40 interviews with Indigenous Peoples and other conservation leaders, and over 30 case studies. It is led by Synchronicity Earth, together with the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), the consultancy Mansourian.org and the universities of Lausanne, East Anglia, Penn State and Pernambuco.

The guide complements existing guidance which tends to focus more on ecological dimensions of restoration. It provides five foundations that should form the backbone of any restoration initiative, and 13 mechanisms that are designed to assist restoration practitioners so that they can ensure that their projects respect the needs, rights, desires, knowledge and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

As world conservation leaders gather in Armenia this week to review progress under the CBD, it has become increasingly clear that such targets should not and cannot be achieved without prioritising the crucial role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Ecosystem restoration is an important tool to reverse harms we have inflicted on our planet affecting its life-sustaining capacity, but external project proponents should aim to collaborate and align with the priorities of those present in the territory, applying standards of respectful practice rather than imposing their approaches and applying minimum standards.

“Existing ecosystem restoration practice remains woefully inadequate when it comes to bringing in Indigenous Peoples and local communities, listening to their needs and priorities, building on their practices and supporting their priorities. This ultimately has an impact not only on their rights and wellbeing, but also on the outcomes of the restoration intervention. Our guide aims to reverse this by providing support to restoration practitioners to better respect the needs and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities,” said Dr Stephanie Mansourian, Co-Chair, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Restoration Task Force and lead author of the guide.

“Everyone is talking about conservation and restoration, but for Indigenous Peoples, conservation is not a project or a time-bound intervention; it is a way of life, carried across generations and deeply embedded in our knowledge, cultures and biocultural inheritance. This report matters because restoration must begin by recognizing what Indigenous Peoples have already conserved, and by respecting their rights, governance, knowledge and leadership wherever restoration is truly needed,” said Hanieh Moghani, Indigenous representative on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Advisory Board.

“This guide addresses a critical gap in rights-based guidance for practitioners and we are looking forward to the contents providing important input into future restoration processes. For that to happen, we need to ensure that it is discussed and shared among those who are most likely to pick it up and use it in their work. We are looking forward to this moving from a newly drafted guide to a powerful tool in use,” said Helen Tugendhat, Co-Executive Director, Synchronicity Earth and Vice-Chair for Governance, Equity and Rights, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

The guide has been a tremendous collaborative effort bringing in eight lead co-authors (Stephanie Mansourian, Neil Dawson, Shruti Ajit, Ida Djenontin, Adrian Martin, Felipe Melo, Gonzalo Oviedo and Helen Tugendhat), the perspectives of over 40 interviewees, and over 30 individual case studies, written by an equally long list of contributors.

You can find the full guide here.