Worldwide, one million species are threatened with extinction and many ecosystems are being degraded, undermining essential services such as clean water, food and resilience to climate change. Ecosystem degradation generates greenhouse gas emissions, adding to existing climate chaos, including deadly floods in Europe, wildfires in the Amazon, drought and flooding in Africa and typhoons in Asia.
Success at October’s COP16 biodiversity summit and November’s COP29 climate summit requires ambitious commitments to accelerate action. It also requires the adoption of effective, equitable solutions: solutions based not only on western science, but also on the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples and local communities who have lived harmoniously with nature for thousands of years.
Safeguarding biodiversity
Nearly half a billion Indigenous Peoples in 90 countries maintain deep cultural and spiritual relationships with Mother Earth and protect sacred sites such as mountains, forests, lakes and rivers, which sustain all life. Indigenous territories, which cover 37% of the earth’s natural land, are essential for safeguarding biodiversity.
The traditional knowledge and innovations of Indigenous Peoples and local communities – including philosophies for living in balance with nature, agroecological food systems and resilient crop and livestock varieties – provide vital solutions for addressing the nature and climate crises.
However, their territories and cultures face significant threats from extractive industries and industrial agriculture, and from some of the very solutions intended to address the nature and climate crises, such as 'fortress conservation'. Recent examples include the eviction of Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania in the name of conservation, and the eviction of Ogiek forest peoples in Kenya for a carbon scheme.
Furthermore, traditional knowledge is rapidly disappearing, with approximately 20 Indigenous languages becoming extinct each year. Indigenous Peoples suffer widespread marginalisation and racism. In 2023, close to 200 environmental defenders were murdered: nearly half of them were Indigenous Peoples.