by Cultural Survival
Biodiversity thrives in forests, rivers, mountains, and seas that Indigenous Peoples have stewarded across generations. For us, caring for biodiversity is not a policy choice; it is who we are. Therefore, protecting biodiversity is inseparable from protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our cosmovisions, lifeways, and cultures emerge from our relationships to Mother Earth and a deep sense of responsibility to care for the ecosystems we all depend on. Yet, our ability to steward ecosystems depends on maintaining our lifeways, ceremonies, economies, and tenure systems.
The KMGBF will only succeed if it treats Indigenous Peoples as rights holders, not stakeholders. Its implementation must move from participation to partnership, and from consultation to recognition. Indigenous Peoples’ rights to our lands, territories and resources, to self-determination, and to Free, Prior and Informed Consent are affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the KMGBF itself.
Target 3 will only be successful if it is achieved with Indigenous Peoples and never at our expense. Recogni-zing and supporting Indigenous Territories and traditional conservation systems are integral parts of implementation. Conservation measures must not lead to displacement, dispossession, restrictions on customary livelihoods, violations of rights, nor the creation of protected areas without full participation of Indigenous Peoples. We urge Parties to recognize and support Indigenous Peoples’ territories, Indigenous conserved areas, and Indigenous-led conservation as essential contributions to Target 3, which must be achieved in connection with Targets 21 and 22.
Indigenous Peoples must have autonomy in stewarding our territories and shaping the futures of our communities. The Parties must ensure the full, equal, effective, and inclusive participation of Indigenous Peoples in decision-making processes on biodiversity issues at all levels, including representation in governing and monitoring bodies. Participation must go beyond mere consultation or exchange of information. Indigenous Peoples must retain authority over their knowledge, including determining when, how, and by whom it may be accessed or used.
Rights without remedies are only promises on paper. Parties must establish effective mechanisms for access to justice, legal remedies, and accountability when Indige-nous Peoples’ rights are violated. Indigenous environmental and human rights defenders must be protected from threats, violence, intimidation, criminalization, and repression. Every attack on a defender is an attack on bio-diversity and must be investigated with those responsible held accountable.
Indigenous Peoples make enormous contributions to achieving the goals of the CBD and KMGBF, and the
resources reaching them must reflect that. We urge the Parties to increase direct funding to Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous-led organizations for conservation, restoration, monitoring, sustainable use of natural resources, and knowledge transfer, as well as other priorities of Indige-nous Peoples. Funding mechanisms must be accessible, predictable, long-term, transparent, subject to right-protecting safeguards, and developed in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples.
Upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-deter-mination and to govern our territories is critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals and to building a future of mutual flourishing for us all.