A sixth mass extinction of species is underway and nine major ecosystems are on the verge of collapse – enter COP15.
For the past week, negotiators from around the world have spent their days and nights locked in the confines of Montreal’s Palais de congrès, pondering a legal text with a fine-toothed comb that could make or break the future of our planet. And while the magnitude of this crisis may seem daunting, immediate solutions are at our disposal through the recognition of indigenous territories in Target 3, a target outlined in the proposed text for the Global Biodiversity Framework to be signed at the close of the COP15.
It is overwhelmingly proven that indigenous territories result in equal or better conservation results than protected areas. However, while protected areas are financed from national budgets, indigenous territories are not financed by states or climate funds. Include indigenous territories in objective 3 currently has the unilateral support of the Global South under the leadership of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. But it’s not yet clear what the Canada, Norway, European Union and New Zealand deal looks like.
Goal 3 is important because it requires conserving 30 per cent of the Earth’s land and sea through the establishment of protected areas and other area-based conservation measures. Scientists, including the IPCCall agree that indigenous territories are critical to conservation efforts.
Despite this, they are not represented in any UN climate or biodiversity agreements. This sets countries up to infringe on indigenous rights, especially land rights. But immediate action is possible, and Indigenous Peoples are offering their ancient knowledge and the wealth of their territories to save life on Earth if we recognize Indigenous territories and their rights in Goal 3.
Indigenous territories are home to 80 percent of the remaining biodiversity on the planet and almost 500 million people spread over more than 90 countries; they represent about 22 percent of the global surface. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have a vital role in protecting the Earth’s biodiversity and, so far, the climate and biodiversity conventions have not reflected this in their agreements.
This conference comes on the heels of COP27, the most recent UN conference on climate change. And although this COP in Montreal focuses on biodiversity, all of these issues are interconnected. The degradation and transformation of nature are the greatest development challenges of our generation. The destruction of nature threatens humanity, exacerbates the climate crisis and accelerates the extinction of vulnerable species around the world. We are facing an ecological crisis of epic proportions made worse by warming temperatures and the wicked extractive activities that are wiping out life on Earth. The truth is uncomfortable, but simple: our planet is at a tipping point and no one wants to foot the bill for this feast.
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The policies adopted in Montreal will chart a course for the future of the planet, including the more than 5,000 indigenous nations that inhabit and manage these ecosystems. Many hope that an outcome of this conference will lead to a “Paris Agreement” for nature.
For this reason, indigenous leaders, researchers and environmental organizations of the initiative “Amazon for Life 80% by 2025” they are urging leaders to clearly recognize indigenous territories in Goal 3, not as an appendix to protected areas and other conservation mechanisms because indigenous territories do not exist for conservation. Conservation results from the worldview, knowledge systems and technologies of Indigenous Peoples.
The Amazon is the habitat with the greatest biodiversity in the world. Even the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, focused on the Amazon during the G7, saying“We need to act for the Amazon and act for our planet: our children and grandchildren are counting on us.”
#COP15 is important because scientists, including the #IPCC, agree that indigenous territories are critical to conservation efforts, write Gregório Mirabal and Alicia Guzmán León. #target3 #30×30 #Biodiversity #IndigenousPeoples
But the expansion of oil and gas in the Amazon is a rapidly accelerating existential threat to global climate stability and biodiversity, and to tens of millions of indigenous peoples and local communities living within areas slated for exploration and development. oil and gas development. legal and illegal mining it is also destroying the Amazon, polluting the rivers, and is one of the main drivers of violence against environmental defenders and indigenous leaders in the region.
We are in the home stretch of meaningful action to protect the planet. We hope that opposing countries will embrace the legacy and leadership of indigenous peoples: Maori, Sami, and those who have nurtured the biodiversity in what we know today as country names and continents like Europe, the Americas, Norway, and New Zealand.
As we move closer to a global biodiversity framework, efforts are moot if indigenous territories are not explicitly included in Target 3. COP15 provides an opportunity for Canada and other colonial countries to heal their past by taking a leadership role to bring this text to the right. side of history, that of solidarity and reconciliation. Recognizing indigenous territories is one of the most important immediate steps to make these negotiations a turning point to save life on Earth.
Gregorio Mirabal is the general coordinator of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). Alicia Guzmán León is director of Stand.earth’s Amazonas program; co-coordinators of the Amazon for Life initiative: protect 80% by 2025.