Indigenous People Are Essential for Preventing Biodiversity Loss. They Mustn’t Be Sidelined.

 As we look to protect our planet over the next decade, we cannot afford to ignore the role that indigenous people and local communities can and do play in the conservation of our most precious, biodiverse lands. In this op-ed, Daniel Kaul, CEO of nature conservation tourism company Natucate, discusses the role of Indigenous people in preserving ecosystems and preventing biodiversity loss as well as the necessity to protect their rights and conservation efforts. See more

In the words of UN chief António Guterres, COP15 was a “historic peace pact with nature,” which would see 30% of land and sea protected by 2030, a target known as the 30×30. Many compared the “historic” COP15 agreement to the UN landmark Paris Agreement, with which countries agreed to limit global warming to 2C and ideally keep it closer to 1.5C, however, there is a glaring oversight. The agreement fell short of explicitly recognising indigenous people’s lands and territories as a separate category of conserved area, which ultimately threatens their rights. Indeed, when Indigenous spokespeople are only given approximately three minutes to contribute to negotiations and are expected to represent the 10,000 Traditional Nations across the globe, we can rightly ask ourselves whether Indigenous populations are really included in these talks at all. There is a fundamental misunderstanding at the core of the conservation conversation. In many places across the world, conservation happens as a result of local, indigenous populations, not in spite of them. Research shows that while the world’s 370 million indigenous people’s make up less than 5% of the world’s total human population, they manage over 25% of the world’s land surface, and support 80% of the world’s biodiversity. As we look to protect our planet over the next decade, we cannot afford to ignore the role that indigenous people and local communities can and do play in the conservation of our most precious, biodiverse lands.

You might also like: The Remarkable Benefits of Biodiversity According to a report by the ICCA Consortium, areas that remain ecologically intact due to conservation practices of Indigenous peoples or local communities cover an estimated 21% of land on Earth, whereas land that is protected by countries, and designated as conservation areas by bodies like UNESCO, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) or the Nature Conservancy cover just 14%.

This is, of course, a question of justice. In the past, a failure to respect the value of Indigenous stewardship of our land has led to mass displacement; some estimates predict that some 10 million people in developing countries have been displaced by governments in efforts to conserve our wildlands. Even those who are not displaced find their traditional fishing and hunting practices outlawed, with consequences on their livelihoods. See more