Request for Proposals: Pathways to securing Indigenous Peoples and Local communities’ rights for community‑led conservation in the Congo Basin

Title of the Assignment : Pathways to securing Indigenous Peoples and Local communities’ rights for community-led conservation in the Congo BasinType: Consultancy Service AgreementWork location: RemoteSubmission deadline: 3 June 2026For the complete Terms of Reference, please go to this link and see the completed ToR.Request for Proposals: Pathways to securing Indigenous Peoples and Local communities’ rights for community‑led conservation in the Congo Basin | WWFBackground Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPs/LCs) are central to protecting forests andbiodiversity in the Congo Basin. Their lands, territories, knowledge systems, and governancepractices have sustained ecosystems for generations. However, despite strongcommitments by governments and international agreements, many IPs/LCs still lack secureland and tenure rights, face weak protection of their territories, and have limited influenceover conservation decisions that affect their lives. These structural gaps undermine theirability—not their willingness—to exercise their customary responsibilities to safeguardbiodiversity as a shared good and to ensure fairness for future generations in accessing andbenefiting from natural resources.Advancing the rights and the conditions that enable responsibilities of IPs/LCs is thereforeessential for locally led conservation that restores nature while delivering equitableoutcomes, reinforcing cultural continuity, and supporting community leadership. Withoutclear and enforceable pathways to land rights, participation, benefit-sharing, and decision making, communities cannot fully exercise their stewardship roles or access emergingopportunities such as biodiversity finance or Other Effective Area-Based ConservationMeasures (OECMs).During the First Global Congress of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPs/LCs)from the Forest Basins (Brazzaville, 2025), communities raised key issues affecting theCongo Basin, and articulated clear demands in the Brazzaville Declaration, including:1. Recognition, protection and security of their land rights and tenure;2. Protection of their lands, territories and leaders to stop killing them anddecriminalization;3. Respecting Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for full and effectiveparticipation;4. Respecting traditional knowledge, science, practice and innovations;5. Access to direct financing to include climate and biodiversity finance.Governments reaffirmed their commitments to instruments they have endorsed—particularly the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)and the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)—and called for concreteaction in the Congo Basin, including:• Legal recognition of indigenous territories• Integration of indigenous lands into national land use plans• Establishing a committee to track compliance with land rights commitments• Full and effective participation of IPs/LCs• Recognition of ICCAs in national laws and policies such as National Biodiversity• Strategic Action Plans (NBSAPs)Despite this recognition, IPs/LCs across the Congo Basin continue to face systemic gaps—including weak or absent enforcement of legal protections—that undermine their ability toexercise collective rights and to steward their lands according to their customaryresponsibilities. These gaps do not diminish communities’ long-standing commitment toconservation; rather, they limit the conditions under which responsibilities can bemeaningfully exercised, especially when territorial security, governance authority, andequitable participation are not guaranteed. Strengthening rights recognition and theaccompanying legal and policy frameworks is therefore essential not only for safeguardinglivelihoods, identity, and self-determination, but also for redressing historical injustices andenabling more equitable and effective conservation outcomes.Regional and global commitments—such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights ofIndigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and theKunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)— underscore the centrality ofsecuring rights to achieving effective biodiversity conservation. Moreover, as custodians ofbiodiversity and holders of traditional knowledge, IPs/LCs require robust legal protection tofully contribute to their stewardship practices. Such protection creates the enablingconditions to integrate Indigenous knowledge systems with scientific approaches,advancing more holistic, just, and inclusive responses to biodiversity loss and climatechange.This consultancy responds to calls from IPs/LCs, governments, and WWF offices to betterunderstand what legal and institutional pathways exist, where they fall short, and how theycan be strengthened to support Indigenous and community-led conservation in the CongoBasin.Purpose of the consultancy Conduct a comprehensive study on the status, legal and policy frameworks, andinstitutional arrangements governing the rights and responsibilities of Indigenous Peoplesand Local Communities (IPs/LCs) in conservation, recognizing that responsibilities must begrounded in secure rights, appropriate authority, and fair governanceSubmission InstructionsSubmit proposals to ie : sodhiambo@wwfint.orgSubject line: “Application for Consultancy: Pathways to securing Indigenous Peoples and Local communities’ rights for community‑led conservation in the Congo Basin »Deadline: 29th May by 23:59 EATCurrency :( ie) USD/CHFLate submissions will not be considered.For RFP submissions, technical and financial proposals should be submitted as separate documents.For the complete Terms of Reference, please go to this link and see the completed ToR.Request for Proposals: Pathways to securing Indigenous Peoples and Local communities’ rights for community‑led conservation in the Congo Basin | WWF