Efforts to protect nature at COP15 will fail without Indigenous people, leaders say
CTV
The world won't succeed in halting biodiversity loss without Indigenous participation and leadership, according to leaders attending a major United Nations conference in Montreal. Jennifer Corpuz, an Indigenous lawyer from the Philippines, said Indigenous people around the world have long been the best guardians of nature.
The world won't succeed in halting biodiversity loss without Indigenous participation and leadership, according to leaders attending a major United Nations conference in Montreal.
Jennifer Corpuz, an Indigenous lawyer from the Philippines, said Indigenous people around the world have long been the best guardians of nature.
"If the parties here don't work with Indigenous peoples, we won't get where we need to go because Indigenous governance and guardianship has been more effective than protected areas," she said Saturday in an interview.
Corpuz said it's crucial that any final agreement negotiated at the conference, known as COP15, include acknowledgment of Indigenous rights, recognition of traditional territory in conservation targets and direct access to funding to protect biodiversity.
"Our lives are at stake as Indigenous peoples, and the health of the planet," said Corpuz, a member of the negotiating team for the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity taking part in talks at the conference.
She says the working text of the international biodiversity framework does include language on Indigenous rights.
But a major sticking point is the desire of Indigenous people to have their traditional lands and waters recognized under a draft target that calls for protecting 30 percent of the world's terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030.
