The IUCN CEESP/WCPA Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity, and Protected Areas (TILCEPA), was set up in 2000 by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). This Inter-commission initiative evolved from a Task Force on Local Communities and Protected Areas, created in 1999, which had a similar mandate.

 TILCEPA seeks the full and effective recognition of the rights and responsibilities of local communities in the development and implementation of conservation policies and strategies that affect the lands, waters and other natural and cultural resources that they relate to. It advocates, in all countries, the recognition of community conserved and managed areas that are significant from biodiversity point of view, and the development of management partnerships with the communities resident in or surrounding official Protected Areas.