INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES - ESSENTIAL PARTNERS IN PROTECTING AT LEAST 30% OF THE PLANET BY 2030

There are approximately 476 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide, in over 90 countries. The identities, cultures, spirituality, and life ways of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) are inextricably linked to biodiversity. IPs and LCs community-based conservation and local governance practices are proven to be effective in preventing habitat loss, often even more effective than traditional conservation methods.

A rights-based approach to partnership is critical to our shared success. There is a growing body of research confirming the connection between strong IPs and LCs land rights and positive conservation outcomes. Expanding legal recognition of IPs and LCs territories is an effective, moral, and affordable solution for protecting our world and preventing the human rights violations that have historically plagued many traditional conservation strategies.  

Supporting IPs and LCs rights and conservation requires an increase in direct access to funding. While 35% of the areas formally protected and 35% of remaining terrestrial areas with very low human intervention are traditionally owned, managed, used, or occupied by Indigenous Peoples, they receive less than 1% of climate funding. Further, only 17% of climate and conservation funding intended for IPs and LCs support actually reaches them.  The increase in fit-for-purpose funding mechanisms that incorporate IPs and LCs voices is a key priority.

Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Many of the people least responsible for climate change, are the most affected by it. Regions managed by Indigenous People suffer less degradation than do regions managed by other public and private actors. However, they still face rapid and unprecedented loss of biodiversity. 

The areas of the world projected to experience significant negative effects from global changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and nature’s contributions to people are also home to large concentrations of Indigenous Peoples and many rural communities that depend on nature for their subsistence, livelihood, culture, spirituality, and health. 

These negative effects diminish the ability of IPs and LCs to safeguard biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. We can’t truly address the destruction of nature unless we listen to the voices and follow the lead of people feeling the worst impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss.

UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC PRACTICES

The areas managed by IPs and LCs are facing growing threats from resource extraction, commodity production, mining, transport, and energy infrastructure, with significant consequences for local livelihoods and health.

Private interests - legal and illegal – have pushed onto traditional lands and waters to build hydropower dams, conduct mining and oil extraction, and spread industrial agriculture, forestry and fishing practices. Some of the negative impacts of these pressures for IPs and LCs include:

·     Disenfranchisement and discrimination on their traditional lands

·     Forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral and sacred lands and waters

·     Deforestation and destruction of wetlands that result in the loss of traditional foods, medicines, and livelihoods

·     Negative health impacts caused by pollution and water insecurity

·     Challenges to traditional governance and the transmission of indigenous and local knowledge

According to the UN, there has been an increase in attacks on Indigenous Peoples as they try to protect their territories and ways of life.  In many cases, IP and LC leaders and territorial defenders are threatened, jailed, or even killed, with the perpetrators rarely being held to account.

CONSERVING NATURE MUST FULLY INTEGRATE AND RESPECT IP and LC LEADERSHIP AND RIGHTS

Efforts to combat climate change and biodiversity loss are incomplete without a focus on correcting environmental injustice. We must acknowledge and address the links between the abuse of nature and people if we are going to protect the planet.

We are not protecting nature or the planet if conservation efforts result in the rights violations, abuse, or marginalization of the people conserving some of the most intact ecosystems on the planet.

Historically, protected areas have not always respected the rights of IPs and LCs and in some cases have led to violence, displacement and human rights violations. This “fortress model” has largely failed when the people most closely connected to the land have not been fully involved in decision-making and benefit sharing.

For these reasons, Campaign for Nature was pleased that the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework recognized the rights and contributions of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendants, First Nations, and local communities. It is now imperative this recognition is upheld, and that IP, AD, FN and LCs are included in all conservation measures going forward.

CONSERVING NATURE MUST FULLY INTEGRATE AND RESPECT IP and LC LEADERSHIP AND RIGHTS

The Campaign for Nature is urging countries to deliver on the recently agreed global target of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. This target is founded on the best available science and makes economic sense. It is also founded on the scientific evidence and moral imperative to recognize the rights, leadership, and priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as true partners in the planning and implementation of efforts to achieve the targets.

The IPBES global assessment in 2019 stressed the important role of IPs and LCs in biodiversity conservation. It highlighted specific actions that can be taken to better facilitate the contributions that IPs and LCs make towards biodiversity conservation, including “national recognition of land tenure, access and resource rights in accordance with national legislation, the application of free, prior and informed consent, and improved collaboration, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use, and co-management arrangements with local communities.”

The global goal to protect 30 by 30 is an approach to conservation that learns from the lessons of the past and sees a path forward in partnership with IPs and LCs, recognizing their contributions to biodiversity conservation as a third way to contribute to 30 by 30 in addition to protected areas and other effective conservation measures (OECMs).

Additionally, through all actions that nations take to meet the goal of 30x30, governments must respect and promote IPs and LCs rights, recognizing the tenets of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

PRACTICAL STEPS TO SUPPORTING FULL PARTNERSHIP OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Campaign for Nature is rooted in the principle that protecting biodiversity means protecting IPs and LCs rights and there is no possibility of achieving 30 by 30 without equitable partnership. CfN is committed to working in solidarity with IPs and LCs to ensure their rights and priorities are recognized and directly funded. More specifically, CfN is dedicated to:

• Advocating for increased financial resources to secure land tenure rights for IPs and LCs, recognizing that land rights are fundamental to environmental justice, and achieving the global 30 by 30 goal.

• Raising and delivering funding directly to IPs and LCs to support their self-determined priorities and life plans through a flexible fit-for-purpose financing mechanism, Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative (CLARIFI), in partnership with Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

• Supporting Path to Scale, an informal network of NGOs, donors, and financial institutions aiming to scale up funding and other enabling factors to secure the land and resource rights, conservation, and livelihoods of IPs and LCs to the levels necessary to meet 2030 global climate and biodiversity targets.

• Advocating for IPs and LCs self-determination of culturally appropriate approaches to conservation and supporting Indigenous protected areas and Indigenous and Community Conservation Areas (ICCAs)

• Supporting the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) to ensure the input of IPs and LCs is better integrated across all aspects of the Kunming-Montreal Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and its delivery.

• Highlighting in the media and at public forums the vital contributions Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendent and First Nation peoples, and Local Communities make to conserving and restoring biodiversity and the need for enhanced protections of their rights

Campaign for Nature believes these efforts are critical to achieving not only the goal of 30 by 30, but any lasting goal to safeguard nature for the future. We call on all of our conservation colleagues to do the same.

Case Studies: Partnering with IP and LCs

CLIMATE CHANGE AND LAND REPORT, IPCC

An IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.

Go to Report

Literature Review & Analysis of Shared Indigenous and Crown Governance in Marine Protected Areas, Coastal first nations great bear initiative and west coast environmental law

In this literature review, we analyzed sixteen leading examples of shared Indigenous and Crown governance in international and Canadian MPAs to provide an overview of lessons learned from these models.

Local Biodiversity Outlooks 2

A complement to the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, this report highlights the contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and to renewing nature and cultures.