![\"\"](\"http:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Hindou_Ibrahim.png\")
Hindou Ibrahim<\/strong><\/p>\nPresident of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad, is a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee.<\/p>\n
\n
This is a critical year for the natural environment. Negotiations by world leaders in Montreal this December will determine the fate of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, a far-reaching agreement that will set the world\u2019s environmental agenda for the next decade. The future of perhaps a million plant and animal species hangs in the balance, as do the lives and livelihoods of billions of human beings.<\/p>\n
Biodiversity is not about simply counting trees, birds, fish, or insects. These certainly matter, but so, too, does the broader balance of the ecosystems on which they, we, and many other species rely. Moreover, the \u2018we\u2019 must include indigenous peoples, who have a particularly important role to play in environmental talks.<\/p>\n
I am one of them. My people, the Mbororo of Chad, are like many other groups that have ancient ties to ancestral lands around the world. We are proven stewards of much of the world\u2019s precious yet dwindling natural inheritance. Deforestation on our lands is much lower than elsewhere. Vegetation is thicker, wildlife is more abundant, food chains are sturdier. Where we live, nature\u2019s vitality has not yet been extinguished. As much as one-third of the world\u2019s tropical forests, peatlands, and mangroves \u2014 carbon-dense ecosystems that account for 80 percent of global biodiversity \u2014 are found on indigenous lands.<\/p>\n
Science has long confirmed indigenous peoples\u2019 unique contributions to Earth\u2019s well-being. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stressed that indigenous knowledge is critical to managing global warming and its effects. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reached the same conclusion with respect to preserving biodiversity. In a follow-up report this year, IPBES further emphasized the importance of indigenous people\u2019s contributions to global conservation.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s growing recognition of indigenous knowledge was also reflected at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last year, when several countries and private donors pledged $1.7 billion to support indigenous peoples and local communities\u2019 conservation and climate-advocacy efforts. It was an unprecedented commitment to a far-flung but increasingly united population.<\/p>\n
But while we welcome world leaders\u2019 growing recognition of indigenous knowledge and practices, fulfilling our stewardship role requires more than approbation. To continue serving as the natural world\u2019s most effective guardians, we need the right to own \u2014 and thus to remain on and continue to manage \u2014 our ancestral lands.<\/p>\n
With indigenous peoples being relentlessly displaced, often violently, from territory that we have always called home, land-tenure reform and secure land rights have become absolutely crucial. Otherwise, outsider settlement, agricultural expansion, industrial extraction, desertification, and disease will continue to sever our historic bonds to the lands we live on.<\/p>\n
Governments must commit to managing land more sustainably. The 30×30 plan to protect 30 percent of the world\u2019s land and sea by the end of this decade is a good idea, provided that it is pursued in close partnership with indigenous peoples and local communities. That means ensuring full inclusion, recognition of our land rights, and our free, prior, and informed consent. We need to be fully represented at the table when new agreements are struck, and when projects to protect and restore ecosystems are being designed.<\/p>\n
To carry out this vital mission, we also need access to funding. The Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative (CLARIFI), which focuses squarely on the intersection of land-tenure rights and community-led conservation, is a good start. CLARIFI fills a key gap by channeling funds directly to indigenous and community-led initiatives. It aims to raise $10 billion by 2030, and to expand legally recognized indigenous territories by 400 million hectares. This is crucial to curbing deforestation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. The goal is to increase these communities\u2019 legal land ownership to at least 50 percent of all tropical forests.<\/p>\n
If the world commits to investing in indigenous peoples, we can then take it from there. With sufficient funding on the ground \u2014 not just on paper and in speeches \u2014 we can do more than anyone else to protect nature and preserve the world\u2019s biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Even though finalizing the Global Biodiversity Framework is crucial to prevent wholesale ecosystem collapse, the process has run into delays, disagreements, and reluctance by key parties. World leaders must rise to the occasion and secure an agreement that fully recognizes indigenous peoples\u2019 and local communities\u2019 rights and unique contributions.<\/p>\n