More than 200,000 hectares protected through Indigenous territories

The climate crisis and the accelerated loss of biodiversity demand a rethinking of how nature is protected. In many territories, conservation models that exclude local communities have proven not only unjust, but also ineffective. In response, the International Land Coalition promotes an approach grounded in a central idea: conservation is only sustainable when it is grounded in the recognition of territorial rights and the leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

This approach, known as rights-based conservation, starts from a fundamental premise: those who have inhabited, cared for, and managed territories for generations play a central role in protecting and sustaining them. Recognizing their rights to land and territory is therefore an indispensable condition for safeguarding ecosystems and addressing the climate and biodiversity crises.

Since 2023, ILC has promoted an alliance between its members and Rainforest Trust to develop rights-based conservation initiatives. These processes are focused on the Peruvian Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet and, at the same time, one of the most heavily pressured by extractive activities, deforestation, and territorial conflicts.

These experiences are part of a long-term vision aimed at strengthening land tenure security, consolidating community-based systems of territorial governance, and demonstrating—through concrete evidence—that community-led conservation generates lasting outcomes for biodiversity and climate.

Indigenous land titling and territorial management: the experience of CONAP

In the lowland rainforest and Andean–Amazon foothills of the Peruvian Amazon, the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru (CONAP) has been advancing land titling processes and strengthening Indigenous territorial management, directly involving Indigenous communities and hundreds of families who depend on the forest for their livelihoods, culture, and subsistence.

These efforts help close historical gaps in the recognition of land rights and contribute to protecting more than 200,000 hectares of Amazon forest—critical for biodiversity, carbon storage, and climate regulation.

A concrete example of this progress took place in December 2025 in the Ucayali region, where more than 49 land titles were granted to Native communities with the support of CONAP. This process secured over 37,000 hectares of Amazon forest in the districts of Masisea and Raymondi, strengthening legal security and Indigenous territorial governance as a foundation for conservation.

These experiences show that when Indigenous communities have legal security over their territories, they are better positioned to protect and govern them, manage them sustainably, and sustain their life plans. Land titling is not merely a legal procedure: it is a strategic tool for conservation, community well-being, and resilience in the face of climate change.

Putumayo: conservation areas emerging through territorial processes – the experience of IBC

In the Putumayo basin, in Loreto, the Institute of the Common Good (IBC) supports processes that link the creation of the Ere–Campuya Regional Conservation Area and the Bajo Putumayo Communal Reserve with the titling and expansion of neighboring Indigenous territories. This approach seeks to prevent territorial gaps that are often exploited by illegal or extractive activities, while strengthening an integrated vision of the territory.

The process incorporates prior consultation and free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and promotes conservation models that protect biodiversity while safeguarding the rights, livelihoods, and development visions of Indigenous Peoples. Conservation areas are conceived not as spaces of exclusion, but as living territories that strengthen Indigenous governance and ecosystem protection.

Beyond the territories: learning, exchange, and scaling the approach in Latin America

These experiences go beyond local implementation. They function as learning spaces that generate knowledge, methodologies, and evidence that are useful for other Amazonian and Andean territories.

Building on these lessons —and linked to projects supported by Rainforest Trust in Peru—ILC LAC and the National Land Coalition of Peru are working on a Rights-Based Conservation Training Program at national and regional levels, set to begin in February 2026. The initiative is aimed at ILC members and partners working in the Amazon and the Andean region.

The program will seek to strengthen capacities, promote exchange across territories, and consolidate a Latin American narrative that places rights at the center of conservation policies and practices. The projects in Peru will serve as territorial learning laboratories, alongside other ILC LAC initiatives linked to Indigenous Peoples, rural youth, land defenders, and pastoralists.

The goal is clear: to promote a form of conservation that places people and the territories they protect at the center, and that contributes to a Latin American agenda for environmental justice.