Main areas of work related to the Convention:
Yolda Initiative applies multiple strategies to understand and support Indigenous and local communities that maintain sustainable land and sea use systems rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and intangible cultural heritage.
Examples of Yolda’s work include:
• “Mobile Pastoralism and Protected Areas: Conflict, Collaboration and Connectivity” (peer-reviewed paper): Yolda conducted participatory spatial mapping with mobile pastoralist communities in Mediterranean countries. The completed mapping in Spain was correlated with areas of high biodiversity to demonstrate the ecological connectivity facilitated by these communities. The study called for stronger collaboration between pastoralists and conservation authorities.
• “Mobile Pastoralism and the World Heritage Convention” (report): This study explored how mobile pastoralism contributes to conservation and cultural heritage within and around World Heritage sites. It presented key case studies and provided recommendations for integrating pastoralism into site management approaches.
• “Co-creating Knowledge for Action with Transhumant Herders” (report): Through interviews and participant observation in Spain, this study documented the lived experiences and traditional knowledge of contemporary transhumant herders. It addressed a critical gap in ethnographic and cultural heritage literature by highlighting ongoing practices grounded in oral transmission and community knowledge systems.
• “Rewilding traditional grazing areas affects scavenger assemblages and carcass consumption patterns” and “The value of transhumance for biodiversity conservation: Vulture foraging in relation to livestock movements” (peer-reviewed papers): These studies used GPS tracking of vultures to demonstrate how mobile pastoralism supports scavenger species like Griffon Vultures. They highlight the link between traditional land-use practices and ecological functions essential to biodiversity.
• Advocacy and global coordination: Yolda has played a leading role in global advocacy for the recognition of pastoralist cultural practices. Since 2016, as part of the Global Secretariat and Global Coordination Group of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) Global Alliance, Yolda contributed to the successful proclamation of 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists by the UN General Assembly.
• Safeguarding transhumance as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Yolda has been serving as an official focal point within the multinational extension process of the UNESCO inscription of “Transhumance, the seasonal droving of livestock.” It also contributes to the implementation of the International Safeguarding Plan, coordinating joint actions among 17 countries.
• Community empowerment: Among many activites in this regard, Yolda also supported a nomadic pastoralist community in developing community-based entrepreneurship to help preserve mobile pastoralism as a living heritage. The initiative helped diversify local products and establish direct market access, reinforcing the cultural and economic sustainability of the community.
Through its multidisciplinary work, Yolda demonstrates strong capacity to provide advisory services to the Committee, particularly in linking the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage with biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and resilience-building.
Objectives
Yolda Initiative is a nature conservation organisation working at the international level with an inclusive approach to conserve biocultural diversity and tackle climate change. At the core of Yolda’s approach lies the Cultural Landscapes and Seascapes and Cultural Practices conceptual framework. Cultural landscapes and seascapes refer to areas where human activities are key agents in the evolution of the environment. Conceptually, it moves beyond the human–nature dichotomy, based on the recognition that human history is essentially connected with the cultivation of nature and the physical environment, which has historically shaped and engendered present-day landscapes and seascapes.
Yolda therefore understands cultural landscapes and seascapes—and other similar conceptual models—as frameworks that embrace the diversity of tangible and intangible manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its environment.
Accordingly, recognising humans, with their cultural diversity, as integral components of ecosystems, Yolda’s work has significantly focused on preserving local land and sea use systems, and thus cultural practices, that have shaped and sustained cultural landscapes with their natural and tangible and intangible cultural heritage for millennia.
To achieve this overall objective, Yolda’s strategic objectives are:
• Enhance knowledge to understand the state and drivers of biological and cultural diversity loss;
• Direct conservation and restoration of ecosystems and tangible and intangible cultural heritage;
• Empower and enable local and Indigenous communities as actors of change, and support
sustainable customary institutions that rely on traditional ecological knowledge and cultural values and practices;
• Advocate for favourable policies at national, regional, and global levels that recognise and support cultural practices beneficial to biodiversity and climate action;
• Raise awareness and communicate the importance of conserving biocultural diversity, addressing climate change, and promoting sustainable land and sea use systems through creative, inclusive, and strategic messaging;
• Strengthen partnerships and collaborations for greater impact and exchange of knowledge.
Cooperation
Lacking access to institutional power, many local and Indigenous communities that safeguard and transmit intangible cultural heritage—critical to the well-being of humanity and nature—have become politically and economically marginalised. Some have even been criminalised simply for maintaining their traditional ways of life and livelihoods. The challenges they face today are often driven by external forces beyond their control, undermining their capacity to sustain these practices.
Yolda’s rights-based approach focuses on addressing the root causes of these threats, particularly where they violate the inherent rights of communities and harm the cultural, physical, and spiritual integrity of their lives. Grounded in the principle of solidarity, our work fosters mutual support and empowerment with and among communities—who are not only vulnerable, but also key allies in addressing global challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and sustainable food systems.
Our work is participatory and community-led. Local voices are central to the design, implementation, and evaluation of our programmes. We co-produce knowledge through participatory research, support intergenerational knowledge transmission, and help revitalise cultural practices at risk.
Yolda contributes to securing the rights of communities in national, regional, and global policy frameworks. In collaboration with them, we engage in advocacy at global platforms such as the CBD, UNCCD, UNFCCC, and CMS. Yolda also served as the official focal point in Türkiye for the extension of the UNESCO inscription of “Transhumance” and continues to support the implementation of the International Safeguarding Plan.
We also build platforms for convergence and collective action. Yolda is a founding and coordinating member of the Alliance for Mediterranean Nature and Culture, and an active member of the IYRP Global Alliance, the Satoyama Initiative, Together for the Med, and the ICCA Consortium. These partnerships enhance collaboration with communities to safeguard intangible cultural heritage.
We recognise heritage practitioners not only as bearers of knowledge but also as agents of change. Through direct engagement, capacity-building, and advocacy, we work to ensure their voices are heard and their knowledge is sustained for generations to come.
