The WWF-IUCN Shared Resources, Joint Solutions (SRJS) programme has played a pivotal role in operationalizing an inclusive landscape approach. Importantly, it has demonstrated that truly inclusive landscape approaches depend not only on the quality of collaboration between stakeholders, but also on the overall governance context – the policy frameworks, the level of devolution in planning, and the capacities of individual stakeholders to take up new roles and responsibilities that multi-stakeholder governance entails. Strengthening the role of civil society within this process, in particular the roles of youth, women, Indigenous Peoples and environmental activists, requires more than informal interaction and dialogue; it requires a strategy towards strengthening the position of such groups within the societies in which they operate. A rights based approach addresses the current and the desired roles and responsibilities of individuals, communities, companies, societies and states vis-à-vis each other, and vis-à-vis the environment that they share. It helps in raising the ambition of stakeholder dialogue and collaboration, setting benchmarks and developing checks-and-balances within the context of conservation and development, and should therefore be an intrinsic part of an inclusive landscape approach.
This document offers a deep-delve into existing landscape and rights based approaches, and the interfaces between them. Drawing on practical examples from the SJRS programme and elsewhere, it provides recommendations for how the two can be combined and operationalized to strengthen inclusivity and impact within WWF and IUCN’s work.
