For the first time on the African continent, Indigenous peoples and local communities sat at the head of the table at a major conservation congress — setting the agenda, leading the discussions, and shaping the outcome. The landmark gathering in Windhoek, Namibia, brought together more than 43 countries’ worth of community members, policymakers, and conservation organizations to chart a new course for how Africa protects its land and wildlife.
At a glance
- Community-led conservation: The congress was organized by the Alliance for Indigenous People and Local Communities for Conservation in Africa (AICA) and the U.S.-based Rights and Resources Initiative — the first time communities, not international NGOs or governments, set the conservation agenda at this scale.
- Indigenous land rights: Across Africa, local communities currently manage or legally own only 6% of registered protected areas, a gap the congress directly addressed through sessions on tenure rights, legal recognition, and colonial-era land appropriation.
- Kigali call to action: The three-day event was designed to translate the 2022 Kigali declaration — which called for ending forced displacement tied to conservation — into practical, community-driven action plans across local, national, and regional levels.
Why this congress was different
Conservation conferences in Africa have historically been shaped by large international NGOs, global scientists, and government policymakers. Communities — the people who actually live alongside the wildlife and ecosystems being protected — have rarely held the microphone.
This congress flipped that dynamic. “IPLCs themselves organized this congress, set the agenda and led the discussions,” said Patrick Kipalu, Africa director of the Rights and Resources Initiative. “It was a space where decision-makers, NGOs, donors, conservation organizations and communities came together to find common solutions.”
The shift matters because the dominant conservation model has, in many cases, caused real harm. Indigenous peoples and local communities across Africa have faced forced displacement, loss of traditional land, and other human rights violations in the name of protecting wildlife. Moreangels Mbizah, founder of Wildlife Conservation Action in Zimbabwe, described international NGOs sometimes using “aggressive methods to do conservation and working against people.”
Conservation as a way of living
A core theme running through the congress was the idea that many African communities don’t need to be taught conservation — they practice it already, woven into daily life and traditional knowledge systems.
“When you go into any small village in Africa, you will find that people conserve as a way of living, not because they were called to ‘conservation,'” said Kipalu.
That perspective reframes the entire question. Rather than asking how to bring communities into conservation programs designed elsewhere, the congress asked how large institutions and policymakers can align with what communities are already doing. Sessions covered human-wildlife conflict, customary land rights, legal reform, and the participation of women and youth — topics chosen by community members, not conference organizers in distant capitals.
Building an institution from the bottom up
AICA, formed in the months following the 2022 Kigali declaration, is positioned to be the continent-wide voice for Indigenous peoples and local communities. José Monteiro of the Community Leaders Network described the Windhoek congress as “a starting point for Africa to define its own policy framework — one that works for Africa.”
The vision, according to Loupa Pius of the Coalition of Pastoralist Civil Society Organisations in Uganda, is for AICA to unite Indigenous and community voices, mobilize resources, support local conservation projects, build capacity, and establish country-level chapters. “We need to build an institution that is not elite-captured but built from the bottom up,” said Monteiro.
The gathering drew participants from 43 African countries, and organizers described it as a sign that communities across the continent are “together in this and working towards speaking with one voice.”
Progress, but unfinished business
The congress represented a genuine step forward, but significant work remains. A final declaration was still being finalized at the time of reporting, and the deeper challenge — whether large NGOs and governments will actually restructure their systems to support community leadership — is far from resolved. As Kipalu put it, the role communities can play will ultimately depend on how willing powerful institutions are to adjust. Legal recognition and tenure rights remain out of reach for most communities across the continent, and translating declarations into enforceable protections has historically been the hardest part.
Still, the very existence of this congress — organized by communities, for communities — signals something real. International frameworks have long affirmed the rights of Indigenous peoples to participate in decisions affecting their land. What Windhoek added was practice: communities not just invited to the table, but building the table themselves.
“We want to work together with governments and policymakers to prevent communities from experiencing the same injustices and human rights violations of the past,” said Kipalu. The Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for protecting 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 C.E., makes community inclusion not just an ethical question but a practical one. Without the people who know these landscapes best, that goal is much harder to reach.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Indigenous land rights take center stage at COP30
- Ghana establishes a major new marine protected area
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Namibia
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