Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Need Your Support!
Stand with them to protect biodiversity
Biodiversity is deteriorating at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Some estimates predict half of all species on Earth will be wiped out within the next century, and the destruction of natural habitats is a major reason for growing biodiversity loss.
Together, we urgently need to reverse this trend—and this year is decisive. World governments will convene at the U.N Biodiversity Conference later this year to agree on a new series of goals for nature over the next decade.
But indigenous peoples and local communities around the world are worried their fundamental human rights will be overlooked in the new global agreement on biodiversity. Protecting biodiversity is essential, but it should not come at the expense of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs).
In any proposal for conservation, land and territory rights for IPLCs are vital for protecting the powerful links of peoples to their land and territories, ensuring the survival of biodiversity, and safeguarding the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples on how to live in harmony with nature.
Creating Protected Areas on land inhabited by IPLCs without their free, prior and informed consent, leads to conflicts, land grabs, evictions and human rights abuses.
What is more, evidence shows that making these communities central to conservation efforts is the most effective and efficient way to preserve biodiversity. Recognizing Indigenous land ownership rights is the best way to protect biodiversity, according to the recent Policy Brief by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment [2]. And it is not a coincidence that many of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are located on land managed by IPLCs.
Now is the time to put pressure on policy-makers to ensure that Indigenous peoples and local communities are recognized as leaders in the protection of biodiversity.
That’s why we are calling for the rights and contributions of IPLCs to be fully recognized in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Sign the petition now!