Dr Olivia RICKENBACH

Former Social Safeguards Manager at African Wildlife Foundation

For the last ten years I have been working in the field of forest management, development, and wildlife conservation in Africa. Having lived and worked with IPLCs as researcher and community engagement manager in Central Africa, I have witnessed their reliance and connectedness to the land, but also their marginalization in the management of these very lands firsthand. I am convinced that sustainable landscape management can only be achieved if supported by empowered rights-holders. Working for FSC as Senior Expert Forest Governance and Biodiversity for the Congo Basin, I pushed for the training of Indigenous Peoples for informed participation in the development of High Conservation Management Guidelines. At AWF I led the reform of AWF’s social safeguard system. Because they were defined by rights-holders, we used the Gold Standard Principles as its backbone to develop organizational criteria for the implementation of rights-based conservation.