MEDIA STATEMENT
New Report Reinforces Need for Human Rights to be at Center of Global Biodiversity Agreement
WASHINGTON, DC (20 May 2021) — Today, the ICCA Consortium released its Territories of Life: 2021 Report. The report includes the most up-to-date analysis of how much of the planet is likely conserved by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, estimating that they are conserving more than 22% of the extent of the world’s Key Biodiversity Areas on land and at least 21% of the world’s lands. The report also found that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the de facto custodians of many existing state and private protected and conserved areas, without being recognized as such, underscoring the critical need for equitable governance and the importance of ensuring that all existing and new protected and conserved areas fully respect Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights.
In addition to providing updated spatial analyses and related findings, the report details 17 case studies of territories of life from five continents, highlighting concrete examples of how Indigenous Peoples and local communities sustain our planet and describing what types of actions are needed to better support them, their rights, and their contributions to biodiversity.
The report comes at a timely moment, as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) resumes virtual negotiations after a year-long delay. This report follows other recent calls for the CBD’s post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to advance a human rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation.
Brian O’Donnell, Director of Campaign for Nature issued the following statement:
“These important findings reinforce the need for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s strategy to better recognize, protect, and advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. In addition to advancing the cause of justice, a human rights-based approach should be viewed as a central pathway towards achieving global biodiversity goals.
Dramatically increasing financing for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to secure their collective lands and territories and governance systems is a key to implementing ambitious targets like conserving at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030, and should be strongly supported by donor countries and the private sector.”
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The Campaign for Nature works with scientists, Indigenous Peoples, and a growing coalition of over 100 conservation organizations around the world who are calling on policymakers to commit to clear and ambitious targets to be agreed upon at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China in 2021 to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 and working with Indigenous leaders to ensure full respect for Indigenous rights.
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