STATEMENT

Campaign for Nature condemns recent violence and evictions in Tanzania

Tanzania — The Campaign for Nature condemns the horrific reports of Tanzanian security forces violently evicting peoples from their ancestral lands and territories in the Ngorongoro District. The reported shootings, arrests of community leaders, and hundreds of people being forcibly driven from their homes is abhorrent.

We call for the immediate cessation of the violence, intimidation and evictions; for the perpetrators of violence to be held accountable; and for the rights of the Maasai to their lands and to their internationally recognized Indigenous rights to be respected.

As the international community meets next week in Nairobi to discuss a new United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework, it is critical that the agreement advance a new paradigm for conservation which recognizes the extraordinary contribution and role of IPLCs as protectors of biodiversity; explicitly requires free prior and informed consent of IPLCs in the development and designation and management of protected or conservation areas; and ensures the rights of Indigenous Peoples are fully respected and secured.

More on Campaign for Nature and IPLCs in the GBF.

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About Campaign for Nature

The Campaign for Nature works with partners worldwide to champion a global goal to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030, a target to be agreed on at the 15th Conference on the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022. The ambitious, science-driven 30x30 goal, endorsed by nearly 100 countries worldwide, relies on ensuring the full rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and adequate finance from an array of funders.

 
 
 

Contact:

Kirsten Weymouth

National Geographic Society

kweymouth@ngs.org

+1 703.928.4995