Our story is one of renewal, and Indigenous leadership.
Why Our Work Matters?
The world is facing an unprecedented convergence of crisis, accelerating climate change, widespread biodiversity loss, and the erosion of cultural and ecological systems that sustain life. At the same time, Indigenous Peoples continue to face the impacts of historical injustices, including high levels of poverty and limited access to their cultural lands and resources. These challenges are deeply interconnected with
biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.
Global assessments, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports on biodiversity, wild species and the interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food, and health, affirm what Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have long known: their stewardship is vital to sustaining ecosystems and addressing these crises. Yet their rights, governance systems, and knowledge remain undervalued or under threat.
Responding to a Critical Gap
ACRRA was founded in 2024 in response to this moment of crisis and a critical gap, the absence of Indigenous-led institutions working to secure biocultural rights in legal, policy, and conservation spaces. Across Africa, Indigenous Peoples are central to protecting biodiversity and
stewarding land, yet they remain excluded from decision-making that directly affects their territories and ways of life.
What We Do
ACRRA aims to shift how conservation and development are done: placing Indigenous legal systems and ecological relationships at the center and embedding biocultural rights in national and regional legal frameworks. We believe that climate and biodiversity justice cannot be achieved without the leadership, laws, and lived knowledge of IPLCs.
Based in Southern Africa and networked across the continent, ACRRA brings together community organisers, legal advocates, and knowledge holders to steward lands, resources, culture, and climate through:
Indigenous Peoples laws, cultures, practices and knowledges
Biocultural conservation
Rights-based advocacy
Our Impact
Our work is grounded in legal empowerment approaches and collective action in solidarity with communities. We support communities to speak in their own voice, act in their own authority, and shape the legal and policy frameworks that govern their lives and lands.While our primary focus is on Indigenous Peoples, we also work with local communities and allied networks to promote community rights-based conservation, address systemic human rights challenges highlighted by the African Commission, and ensure that women and youth play a central role in shaping a just and sustainable future.