Big win for suffering indigenous people at biodiversity summit

Indigenous people across the country and Africa have a reason to smile after an international convention made resolutions aimed at preserving their traditional livelihoods.

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which seeks sustainable solutions in the face of escalating climate crises, resolved to establish a permanent body to enhance the engagement of indigenous people and local communities in convention processes.

The meeting, held in Colombia between October 21 and November 1, ended as the COP29 kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan, where delegates have converged to discuss climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The forum adopted a new programme that sets out specific tasks to ensure the meaningful contribution of the indigenous peoples towards the three objectives of the convention – including the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits.

The event involved intense negotiations to advance the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which sets out a pathway to the vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. In Kenya, the hunter-gatherer Ogiek, numbering up to 30,000, have faced harassment in a bid to evict them from their ancestral land in the Maasai Mau Forest.

The community filed a complaint at the African Commission in 2017, accusing the Government of violating the Constitution, and won.

Two landmark rulings by the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights upheld the minority community’s land rights in the forest. 

But in violation of the court ruling, the State went ahead with the evictions. The community returned to the court, and in 2022, the court delivered a reparations ruling setting out what the State owed them for not complying.

In Tanzania, the Maasai were recently in the headlines following their eviction from areas around national parks. International agencies have since picked up the issue, and have been raising it to the global audience.

“These abuses follow a pattern of violations against Maasai in the area. Since at least 2009, the government has forcibly evicted thousands of people from Loliondo to open areas for conservation, tourism, and trophy hunting,” said Human Rights Watch.

These are some of the conflicts that the resolutions at the Colombia forum, under the theme “Peace with Nature”, hope to address.

Colombia’s message to states across the world was to foster peace and harmony with nature. This was in recognition of the unequal, destructive, and extractive activities, especially those associated with fossil fuels, which violate human rights and accelerate planetary crises like biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution. 

“Establishment of the subsidiary body on Article 8(j) will empower indigenous peoples’ actors to operate across both local and international levels, ensuring that their work remains impactful on a planetary scale while reflecting the unique contributions and needs of indigenous peoples and local communities,” said Anne Samante, head of programmes and partnerships at Mainyoito Pastoralists Integrated Development Organisation.

“A permanent subsidiary body would strengthen Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities practices at the local level, where their environmental stewardship is deeply rooted, and provide greater access to financial resources hence achieving biodiversity goals.”

Natural Justice, a South African NGO that empowers communities to pursue social and environmental justice, welcomed the resolution.

In alliance with other civil society organisations, it advocated for the inclusion of language on equity, justice and a human rights-based approach to implementing, monitoring and financing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

“COP16 brings some semblance of renewed hope going into COP29. Despite having the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change in the UNFCCC space, the knowledge and contributions of defenders and Indigenous Peoples are largely ignored,” said Tawonga Chihana, Natural Justice coordinator for the African Environmental Defenders Initiative. 

“We see this as an opportunity to reiterate the importance of recognising the leadership of indigenous peoples in safeguarding the planet.”

Despite the historic decision, parties failed to reach a consensus on important agreements needed to fund and monitor the implementation of KMGBF.

“The COP16’s wins, although welcome, are sadly undercut by its failure to take final decisions on the monitoring framework and resources mobilisation, which does not bode well for the COP29 climate talks that started on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan, with finance being the key topic,” said Katherine Robinson, Natural Justice head of campaigns.

“The lack of political will by developed states creates fertile ground for promoting and advancing false solutions like biodiversity credits, carbon credits, and offsetting.”