More than 190 countries agreed Monday on a plan to preserve 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 in order to protect biodiversity, which is rapidly declining due to human activity. The agreement was reached at a United Nations biodiversity conference in Montreal, Canada, known as COP15. The United States did not formally participate in negotiations because it is not a signatory to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. The landmark agreement seeks to halt the Earth’s sixth major mass extinction event, and Indigenous communities will have an increased role in protecting wildlife as part of the deal. For more on the historic agreement, we speak with Leila Salazar-López of Amazon Watch and Eriel Tchekwie Deranger with Indigenous Climate Action.
I think that there were some really, really good accomplishments at the CBD COP15, including many, many, many references to Indigenous rights. I believe that there were over 20 references to Indigenous peoples, our rights, including free, prior and informed consent. And just as the earlier segments just stated, it’s absolutely impossible to create a biodiversity agreement without the inclusion of Indigenous rights, because 80% of remaining biodiversity is Indigenous lands and territories.
So, while we’re seeing massive progress to recognize the rights on paper, some of the biggest challenges and risks that have come out of this COP is the fact that there aren’t any real mechanisms with real teeth, similar to COP27, that actually protect our rights, our culture, and our ability to advance our rights to say yes and no to these types of agreements, that are pushing forward not just sort
— source democracynow.org | Dec 21, 2022