Indigenous groups have a range of concerns about the UN summit negotiations, with many fearing deal to protect 30% of Earth by 2030 could be used to take away their land under the guise of conservation.
Negotiations on a deal to
protect 30 percent of the Earth by 2030 are woefully behind in
addressing the concerns of native people, whose land holds the
majority of the world’s remaining biodiversity, Indigenous
advocates told the Reuters news agency at the UN nature summit in Montreal.
Indigenous participation is seen as key to reaching that
so-called “30-by-30” target within an ambitious new agreement to
halt further nature loss and degradation.
While Indigenous groups account for about 5 percent of the world’s
population, their lands safeguard about 80 percent of Earth’s remaining
plant and animal species, according to the World Bank.
At least 40 percent of the world’s remaining plant species are in
trouble. The global insect population is declining at an
unprecedented rate of up to 2 percent per year.
“This process around biodiversity needs to put Indigenous people at the centre,” said Dinamam Tuxa, a lawyer for Brazil’s largest Indigenous umbrella group, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.
While Indigenous groups in many countries have limited
authority or recognition over their territories, they often rely
on these environments for their livelihoods — through
traditional hunting, fishing or harvesting materials from
forests such as honey, rubber sap or firewood.
But many of these territories are under increasing pressure
thanks to weak conservation laws in some countries and growing
demand for natural resources such as metals.
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Not ambitious enough
Indigenous groups have a range of concerns about the UN
summit negotiations.
While some fear the 30-by-30 target could
be used to take away their land under the guise of conservation,
others have said the 30 percent goal is not ambitious enough.
Groups agreed that any summit deal should deliver
more authority to Indigenous people in deciding what happens on
their lands.
“The states must recognise and protect their rights,” said
Aquilas Koko Ngomo, spokesperson for the National Alliance for
the Support and Promotion of Indigenous and Community Heritage
Areas and Territories in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The good old ways of ‘we decide what we want, and we don’t
care what the indigenous want’ is becoming more and more a thing
of the past,” Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault
said in an interview.
Canada on Wednesday pledged $589 million
over seven years starting in 2023-24 for up to four Indigenous-led conservation initiatives that could collectively
protect up to 1 million square kilometres.
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‘We want it all’
The move would help Canada’s strategy of roughly doubling
its protected land to meet the 2030 target.
Yet clashes between
some First Nations communities and provinces over resource
extraction on land these groups want to protect remain
obstacles.
The First Nations community of Grassy Narrows in Canada said
it opposes what it calls proposed demands by Ontario to allow
logging on 20 percent of their land in 2024.
“We don’t want them to just give us 80 percent, we want it all,”
said Grassy Narrows negotiator Joseph Fobister, of their
estimated 7,000-sq-km territory.
Fobister said Grassy Nations has asked Canada to protect the
land as part of 30-by-30.
Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said it
has worked with Grassy Narrows and other Indigenous communities
as it develops options for a new 10-year forest management plan
starting in 2024.
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Source: Reuters
Indigenous people seek stronger land rights at Montreal nature summit
Source: News Achor Trending
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