A group of concerned professionals including social and natural scientists from all regions of the world met in Wadi Dana Nature Reserve, Jordan, 3-7 April 2002, to consider a comprehensive approach to mobile peoples [1] and conservation. At the end of this meeting, they agreed the following declaration:

The world faces unprecedented threats to the conservation and sustainable use of its biodiversity. At the same time, its cultural and linguistic diversity, which includes an immeasurable and irreplaceable range of knowledge and skills, is being lost at an alarming rate.

The linked pressures of human population dynamics, unsustainable consumption patterns, climate change and global and national economic forces threaten both the conservation of biological resources and the livelihoods of many indigenous and traditional peoples. In particular, mobile peoples now find themselves constrained by forces beyond their control, which put them at a special disadvantage.

Mobile peoples are discriminated against. Their rights, including rights of access to natural resources, are often denied and conventional conservation practices insufficiently address their concerns. These factors, together with the pace of global change, undermine their lifestyles, reduce their ability to live in balance with nature and threaten their very existence as distinct peoples.

Nonetheless, through their traditional resource use practices and culture-based respect for nature, many mobile peoples are still making a significant contribution to the maintenance of the earth’s ecosystems, species and genetic diversity – even though this often goes unrecognised. Thus the interests of mobile peoples and conservation converge, especially as they face a number of common challenges. There is therefore an urgent need to create a mutually reinforcing partnership between mobile peoples and those involved with conservation.

In the light of this understanding, we commit ourselves to promoting conservation practices based on the following principles:

Principle 1. Rights and Empowerment

Conservation approaches with potential impact on mobile peoples and their natural resources must recognise mobile peoples’ rights, management responsibilities and capacities, and should lead to effective empowerment. These rights include:

To this end, appropriate legislative reforms should be promoted as needed, at national and international levels. In addition, because mobile peoples often move through different territories, transboundary co-operation between national authorities may be required.

Recognition of mobile peoples’ rights should lead to effective empowerment, and include consideration of gender and age.

Principle 2. Trust and Respect

Beneficial partnerships between conservation interests and mobile peoples should be based upon mutual trust and respect and address the issue of discrimination against mobile peoples. To this end partnerships should:

Principle 3. Different Knowledge Systems

In planning and implementing conservation of biodiversity with mobile peoples, there is a need to respect and incorporate their traditional knowledge and management practices. Given that no knowledge system is infallible, the complementary use of traditional and mainstream sciences is a valuable means of meeting the changing needs of mobile peoples and answering conservation dilemmas. In particular:

Principle 4. Adaptive Management

Conservation of biodiversity and natural resources within areas inhabited or used by mobile peoples requires the application of adaptive management approaches. Such approaches should build on traditional / existing cultural models and incorporate mobile peoples’ worldviews, aspirations and customary law. They should work towards the physical and cultural survival of mobile peoples and the long-term conservation of biodiversity.

More particularly, such adaptive management approaches should:

Principle 5: Collaborative Management

Adequate institutional structures for adaptive management should be based on the concept of equitable sharing of decision-making and management responsibilities between mobile peoples and conservation agencies. This is only possible if the existing decision-making mechanisms for biodiversity conservation become more democratic and transparent, so as to allow for the full and open participation of civil society and mobile peoples in particular, and for the establishment of co-management and self-management systems. This requires that the relevant parties:

This declaration is our contribution to narrowing the disciplinary divide. The ideas in it need to be tested, refined and further developed in dialogue with mobile peoples themselves and others. But these issues need to be considered urgently at national and international levels – and in particular at the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Parks Congress.

Parties to the Declaration: