Given the grim state of the world\u2019s forests, we need to seize every opportunity to do right with nature.<\/p>\n\n
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity summit, or Cop15, relocated to Montreal, Canada, in December this year could be the \u201cParis moment\u201d for biodiversity<\/a>, as the 2015 Paris Agreement was for climate.<\/p>\n\n In Montreal, countries are expected to agree on a global framework to halt biodiversity loss this decade.<\/p>\n\n As biodiversity negotiators convene this week in Nairobi, Kenya, to prepare the meeting, they must wake up to another crucial truth: Indigenous Peoples and local communities are better at managing their lands than anyone else.<\/p>\n\n Data gathered across countries<\/a> and continents<\/a> consistently shows that when people living in forests are left to run them, the result is better-protected ecosystems and biodiversity than any other conservation model.<\/p>\n\n Deforestation industries \u2013 whether loggers or agribusiness \u2013 are well aware of this. While they clear forests, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are being displaced,<\/a> abused<\/a>, and murdered<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Delegations attending the biodiversity Cop15 summit are expected to discuss safeguards for recognising the rights and roles of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conserving nature. So far, discussions haven\u2019t included any concrete commitments.<\/p>\n\n To protect biodiversity effectively, and ethically, Cop15 must recognise tangible protections for the rights of Indigenous Peoples. That should include creating a new and separate category for Indigenous land, one that puts them as the centre of decision-making and funding.<\/p>\n\n Currently, there exists two types of conservation designation: protected areas<\/a> and other effective area-based conservation measures<\/a> when conservation is supposedly achieved even though it isn\u2019t the formal objective of land management.<\/p>\n\n In Nairobi, countries should agree to create a third category for land which is fully governed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.<\/p>\n\n In all protected areas where Indigenous Peoples and local communities live, they must be fully involved in the decision-making processes and management of the area.<\/p>\n\n The threats are not just the chainsaws and bulldozers of multinational companies seeking to extract natural resources, but \u201cfortress conservation\u201d<\/a>, which closes off land and forests to human activities.<\/p>\n\n There is a difficult history not only between forest dwelling Indigenous Peoples and local communities and industries but also with traditional conservationists. Unlike traditional conservation NGOs or government-run parks\u2019 administrators, Indigenous Peoples and local communities consider the forest their home.<\/p>\n\n Fortress conservation is the result of the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples\u2019 rights from conservation frameworks. This has often led to chronic human right abuses in the form of rape, torture<\/a>, and killing<\/a> of forest communities by so-called eco-guards, which has been well-documented in Central Africa.<\/p>\n\n The latest confrontation took place shortly before the start of the Nairobi talks, when Tanzanian authorities were seen opening fire on Maasai communities<\/a> opposing the demarcation of a game reserve, which would ban all human settlements and grazing in the area.<\/p>\n\n Creating a game reserve for tourism by violently evicting the land\u2019s inhabitants isn\u2019t \u201cconserving nature.\u201d It\u2019s a renewed form of colonialism. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n The global deal for nature due to be agreed in Montreal later this year is an opportunity to shun this type of fortress conservation and embrace change.<\/p>\n\n That means formally recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral lands and natural resources.<\/p>\n\n In recent years, some progress has been made. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is now possible for forest communities to formally receive rights over a forest concession.<\/p>\n\n But the Congolese government<\/a> and donor countries<\/a> need to do more to make this option accessible to communities.<\/p>\n\n![\"Villagers](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-international-stateless\/2022\/06\/841b3f4d-gp0str8n6-1024x684.jpg\" "\\"Villagers")
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