An exploration of rights, justice and equity in the work of large, international non-governmental conservation organisations

“Rights-based” approaches (RBAs) are viewed by many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as a transformative solution to ensuring just and equitable conservation for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. As RBAs become prioritised by international conservation NGOs and global governance processes such as the Global Biodiversity Framework, this thesis answers the following questions:
1. How and why are RBAs defined and adopted by international conservation NGOs and what are the implications of this for justice and equity?
2. What are the responsibilities of NGOs with regards to rights, and how do they respond to these responsibilities?
3. How can RBAs to conservation be monitored, evaluated and learned from?

The answers to these questions are presented through three studies: a questionnaire survey and interviews with a range of international conservation NGOs; a document analysis of the UN literature and the social safeguards of the six NGO members of the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights and the presentation of a new Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework for RBAs that is operationalised through a justice lens.
This research interrogates RBAs through the lenses of environmental justice and political ecology, which provides insights into their procedural, recognition and epistemic implications and how these are constructed through the power and discourses of NGOs. These insights suggest that the impact of RBAs is limited by the ways they are currently applied by large international conservation NGOs, but that change could be achieved by moving beyond a purely human rights focus, towards those that consider alternative perspectives on justice. This will require systems change in the funding sphere, the development of truly participatory and locally led practices and new ways of braiding knowledge and perspectives on justice from different worldviews together. Overall, this thesis advances understanding of rights, equity and justice in the work of large conservation NGOs.