Community Taba: Local Voices for a Global Vision

This initiative is premised on networking and partnerships as components of a strategy for bridging the gap between "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches to conservation. "Historically," organisers claim, "the greatest successes have been registered when local communities, protected area managers, local and national governments, the private sector, and innumerable others collaborate to establish an 'enabling environment' wherein individuals may find common ground and chart their own political space." Community Taba used in-person, face-to-face information and experience exchange as a means of creating such an environment, with the aim of fostering inclusion within COP8 of the perspectives of civil society - and, in particular, communities (including especially women and indigenous and island peoples).

Specifically, the Equator Initiative collaborated with grassroots conservation partners and other organisations to establish an interactive, comfortable "dialogue space" designed to create an open forum for communities most intimately connected to biodiversity. This space, meant to be owned and occupied by grassroots representatives in preparation for and as a complement to daily COP8 events, took the form of an indigenous village setting built by the InterTribal Committee of Brazil. The space included a large discussion area and several smaller meeting areas, with an open central space for presentations and group meetings. The core constituency of the Community Taba using this space consisted of 100 community representatives from all over the developing world who, with support from a small group of facilitators, acted as the overall "host/organising" body for activities at the Taba. As part of these activities, community representatives prepared displays of their work together, using the outside walls of the Taba structure as showcase areas. Communities who have effectively managed to conserve their biological resources through partnerships and dialogue presented their cases and experiences to peers in the Taba. In short, Taba users gathered to share information, priorities, and concerns - as well as to assess how peer learning exchanges and other training processes can increase the effectiveness of community conservation and sustainable biodiversity use.

As part of the advocacy piece of the initiative, 2 days before COP8 began, community representatives in the Taba began organising and coordinating their participation in the official discussions. A community clinic was held to provide background on the CBD and potential outcomes of COP8, to identify specific opportunities for impacting key issues at COP8, and to provide tips for influencing delegates and making high impact presentations in this venue. Throughout the COP community leaders engaged representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), national governments, and international organisations on specific issues of relevance to biodiversity, poverty reduction, and the CBD. A flexible schedule was designed to enable presentations to the media; a key purpose of the Taba was to encourage global media coverage and ensure the messages of the community leaders were communicated openly and accurately.

The participants were (and continue to be) backed up by an array of networked resources - including online resources - designed to maximise the impact of their ideas on the Conference's outcomes, foster new partnerships, and provide opportunities to develop and refine their conservation frameworks.

Biodiversity.

"Over the course of the past decade it has become increasingly clear that communities play a central role in advancing sustainable development. Therefore, any undertaking in pursuit of the 2010 Biodiversity Target, a necessary first step towards achieving the [Millennium Development Goals] MDG's in 2015, must first recognize the close relationship that exists between sustainable community livelihoods and biodiversity conservation....However...communities are frequently underrepresented at national and international policy summits. The Community Taba aims to reverse this trend, linking local voices together to articulate a global vision of effective conservation."

The Equator Initiative is a partnership launched in 2002 that brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments, and communities around the world in an effort to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Click here to learn more about COP8, which was held March 18-31 2006 in Brazil.