Indigenous youth as guardians and restorers of biological diversity

Location: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities - Room 5 D, 5th Floor Plaza One

Co-organisers: PAHO, WB, FAO LAC, CBD, Arramat, ILC, filac, Youth Climate Justice Fund, UNFPA, FIAY

On July 16 and 17 of this year, the Indigenous Youth Network (RED-LAC) held the “Training Workshop: Indigenous Youth as Guardians of Biodiversity”. The workshop was a space for information on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and a space for reflection to create recommendations on the road to the sixteenth Conference of the Parties – COP16. The workshop brought together 186 Indigenous Youth from 30 countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Philippines, France, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. The workshop was attended by Ms. Susana Muhamad González, Minister of Environment of Colombia; Ms. Sonia Guajajara, Minister for Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and Mr. David Cooper, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Our side event, during the COP16 session, aims to present the recommendations made by Indigenous Youth during the “Capacity Building Workshop: Indigenous Youth as Guardians of Biodiversity”.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework emphasizes the crucial role of Indigenous Peoples in the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biological diversity. From the perspective of Indigenous Youth, it is vital that its implementation respects, documents and preserves their biodiversity-related traditional knowledge, innovations, worldview, values ​​and practices, through their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

It remains clear that the principle of intergenerational equity must guide the implementation of the Framework, so the participation of Indigenous Youth is crucial for inclusive implementation. This is because we, the Indigenous Youth, are the link between emerging generations and previous generations, that is, we play a fundamental role as a bridge between children and the elderly. Our responsibility to Mother Earth is of utmost importance in the protection, respect and preservation of Biological and Cultural Diversity.

The perspectives of the Indigenous Youth in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework were put into dialogue, allowing the construction of a collective voice of the Indigenous Youth. This collective voice is of great interest to us, especially the transmission of the conclusions of the dialogue to different instances.

Mujeres en primera línea: Una Agenda Regional por la Biodiversidad y los Derechos a la Tierra

Location: Green Zone | Auditorio Principal del Banco de Bogotá (Cra. 4 #7-61)

Co-organisers: ILC Latin America & the Caribbean, LAC Land and Environmental Defenders Platform and Oxfam

This event will be a film forum where two documentaries will be screened:

• “REFLEJOS” (Colombia, 2024) will be presented by Weisny Yireth Velaides from Fundación Mujer, Amazonía y Paz (Funmapaz) - Caquetá, Colombia.
• “LITIO: WHAT IS BEHIND THE REFORM” (Argentina, 2023) presented by Debora Sajama, member of the National Coalition for the Land ENI - Argentina, and of the Aboriginal Community of Casa Grande, Vizcarra and El Portillo, from El Aguilar Jujuy, Argentina.

Closing the data gap: Promoting an enabling environment for Environmental defenders advancing Biodiversity and climate justice

Location: Colombia Pavilion

Co-organisers: Alliance for Land, Indigenous and Environmental Defenders (Allied), Ford Foundation, EarthRights International, Global Witness, Goldman Environmental Prize, ILC, UN-Eclac Escazu secretariat

Data-Driven Protection: Monitoring the Situation of Environmental Human Rights Defenders in Target 22

Location: Banco de la Republica - Auditorium

Co-organisers: ALLIED |OHCHR | ILC | Business and Human Rights Resource Centre | Técnicas Rudas |ANGOC | IWGIA | CINEP | Natural Justice | URG | ICCA Consortium

The LandMark Mapping Platform: New Data and Tools for Securing Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Rights and Meeting Global Biodiversity Targets

Location: Nature positive pavilion

Co-organisers: ILC | WRI

World Resources Institute and International Land Coalition present Securing Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ traditional rights is key to conserving biodiversity - the newly updated LandMark mapping platform supports efforts toward meeting these critical objectives.

The LandMark Platform: Mapping Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Land Rights and Their Importance in Sustaining Biodiversity

Location: Camera de Comercio de Cali

Co-organisers: ILC | WRI

World Resources Institute and International Land Coalition present Securing Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ traditional rights is key to conserving biodiversity - the newly updated LandMark mapping platform supports efforts toward meeting these critical objectives.

The Role of Smallholder and Family Farmers in Biodiversity Conservation: The Importance of Secure Land Tenure and Agroecology

Location: UNIVERSIDAD ECCI – SALON 2 PISO 9

Co-organisers: ILC | WRF | COPROFAM| AFA

Guardianas/es de los derechos de la Madre Naturaleza

Location: UNIVERSIDAD ECCI – SALON 3 PISO 7

Co-organisers: ILC LAC

Securing Indigenous People and Local Communities' Land Tenure and Livelihoods to Sustainably Manage, Restore and Conserve Biodiversity

Location: ASEAN Pavilion

Co-organisers: ILC International Land Coalition | ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity| Rainforest Trust| Pafid, Kaisahan, JKPP, NTFP-EP

Forest Day at COP16: Theme: Securing Forest Biodiversity for Nature, Climate and People

Location: The Global Biodiversity Framework Pavilion

Co-organisers: ILC/LandMark | IUCN | WWF | FAO

As the world turns its eyes toward COP 16, Forest Day will put a spotlight on forests and their biodiversity as the critical safeguard for the successful implementation of Global Forest Goals and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and for delivering ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions and Land Degradation Neutrality Targets. There is no ecosystem service security without forest biodiversity. The time to bring these experiences to the table, and to catalyze them into action is now.

Promoting an enabling environment for Environmental human rights defenders advancing Biodiversity and climate justice

Location: Marie Khan Women's Caucus meeting room Plaza One

Co-organisers:  Colombia | Earthrights | FF | ALLIED

Indigenous Peoples worldwide are pivotal in this battle, safeguarding terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems as well as threatened and endangered species critical for the planet. As front-line defenders against ecological degradation, their activism contributes significantly to environmental and climate justice, as well as biodiversity conservation, protection and restoration.

However, around the world, environmental human rights defenders working to address the Biodiversity and climate crisis are increasingly targeted with violence, including the additional risk of gender-based violence for women environmental human rights defenders, harassment, intimidation, displacement, stigmatization and criminalization.

Multilateral environmental agreements have already recognized the role of environmental human rights defenders in access rights and Biodiversity. Just this year, parties to the Escazu Agreement adopted an action plan for human rights defenders in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Global Biodiversity Framework aims to catalyze urgent and transformative action to live in harmony with nature by incorporating a human rights-based approach,  taking a "whole of society" approach, and acknowledging the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.  The implementation of the Framework should follow a human rights-based approach, respecting, protecting, promoting, and fulfilling human rights. Environmental human rights defenders are vital agents of change at the frontline of protecting nature and its contributions to human well-being.

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity recognized their role by including Target 22 in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.  Target 22 sets out to “Ensure the full, equitable, inclusive, effective and gender-responsive representation and participation in decision-making, and access to justice and information related to Biodiversity by Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, respecting their cultures and their rights over lands, territories, resources, and traditional knowledge, as well as by women and girls, children and youth, and persons with disabilities and ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders”. According to the guidance provided by the CBD secretariat, the full protection that Target 22 "refers to measures that parties can take to safeguard individuals or groups who work to protect the environment, advocate for environmental justice, and defend the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities." Implementing this target should be part of the revised National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) that parties will submit before CBD COP 16.

This session will: Amplify the voices of environmental human rights defenders working to address the biodiversity and climate crisis, provide a platform for them to tell their stories, and offer their recommendations on how parties can advance in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, mainly target 22 through a human rights-based approach.

This session willl also: Align parties on the critical need to engage in dialogue with civil society and environmental human rights defenders, shared good experiences and local solutions being developed at the national or regional levels, and on the need to take concrete steps to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, mainly target 22.

Sharing Stories: Women’s Land Rights and Conservation in Focus

Location: Women's Hub Pavilion

Co-organisers:  ILC, CBD Women Caucus

Women’s Land, Coastal and Water Rights: From Global Commitments to Local Actions

Location: - Marie Khan Women's Caucus meeting room Plaza One

Co-organisers: CBD Women Caucus | ILC | ICCA Consortium | COOPESOLIDAR | RRI | EcoMaxei | FARN | RWI | GNHRE | TINTA | WWF | WM-GATC

Secure land rights for women are often correlated with better outcomes for them and their families, including greater bargaining power at household and community levels, better child nutrition and lower levels of gender-based violence. Considering gender dimensions and ensuring women’s full and effective participation in biodiversity-related decision-making can lead to positive outcomes for biodiversity and gender equality.  

Both target 23 of the GBF and the GPA (Outcome 1.1.), adopted at COP15, clearly refer to the centrality of women' s land rights and access to resources for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Now it is the time to ensure that the global commitments are  translated into tangible actions at national and local levels.

Moreover, land and water and women’s rights are at the interface and at the centre of all three Rio Conventions and managing land and biodiversity sustainably and equitably is the only way we can mitigate and adapt to climate change, halt the loss of biodiversity, and achieve land degradation neutrality.

The panellists will discuss the crucial link between women's land rights and effective biodiversity conservation, emphasising the importance of securing these rights for sustainable biodiversity governance. They will address the current status and challenges of women's land and water tenure and their implications for biodiversity governance, including the role of women in achieving sustainable biodiversity goals and the necessary synergy between the Rio Conventions. The discussion will also cover the realities of the 30% conservation targets, focusing on displacement issues and women's land, coastal and water rights. Insights from the Gender Plan of Action and Gender Day will be leveraged to enhance gender-responsive biodiversity policies, with a presentation on gender segregated data on women's land tenure and biodiversity governance. Finally, strategies to translate the Biodiversity Plan into national actions with a gender focus will be explored, along with mobilising and strengthening resources to achieve the 23 targets set for 2030, highlighting the contributions of women.

Land use and land tenure for biodiversity: Towards a headline indicator for T22 of CBD’s Global Biodiversity Framework

Location: Nature Pavillion Cocora - Subnational and Local Authorities meeting room Plaza One

Co-organisers: FAO | FPP | WRI | ILC

FAO, together with other partners (the International Land Coalition (ILC), Forest People’s Programme (FPP), World Resources Institute (WRI), LandMark), has taken the lead on the development of a land indicator – which, as requested during the 12th Meeting of the Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions (WG8J-12) in Geneva, includes a land use and land tenure component. The importance of land tenure for biodiversity is all the more emphasized since it is being recommended by SBSTTA as a potential headline indicator for T22 of CBD’s Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) (potential under the custodianship of FAO). The inclusion of this land use and tenure indicator in CBD’s KMGBF will be decided at COP16.

Protecting legitimate land tenure rights enables the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. In particular guaranteeing the land tenure rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, who own, claim and occupy 50% of the World’s lands and are the custodians of large number of the biodiversity hotspots, contributes to the protection of ecosystems, waterways, biodiversity and natural resources, as well as reductions in deforestation and carbon emissions. Biodiversity and other environmental goals cannot be achieved without the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities. Making land rights central to CBD implementation holds the potential to unleash the capacities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to be agents of sustainable transformations for conserving biodiversity.

The objectives of this side event will be twofold. On one hand, it will make the case for Land use and tenure as the basis for protecting and restoring biodiversity while protecting people and livelihoods. Hence, this side event will include key stakeholders from the local, national, and global levels who are involved in policymaking and implementation to discuss the need to make the protection of legitimate tenure rights the basis for implementation of the Rio Conventions, CBD in particular. They will share their expertise, lessons learned, and good practices from different contexts and various levels of governance to strengthen the GBF. On the other hand, it will present and promote the proposed land use and tenure indicator as a potential headline indicator for T22 of CBD’s Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) (potentially under the custodianship of FAO). Policymakers will thus be joined by representatives of the Technical Working Group that developed the land indicator for T22.