Abstract:

This study is a guide for those looking to improve national wildlife laws with a view to ensuring environmental sustainability and strengthening the role of disadvantaged people and increasing their participation in the sharing of benefits. In doing so, this study concentrates on legal tools for the empowerment of local and indigenous communities, as mandated by the Convention on Biological Diversity in recognition of their traditional knowledge, innovation and practices that contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. This also reflects the findings of the first State of the World's Indigenous Peoples' Report, released in 2010 by the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues,3 which underscored that the 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide comprise one-third of the world's extremely poor rural people.