Ensuring the land rights of indigenous peoples and local communities worldwide may be one of the best ways to protect forests, nature and the global climate, according to a post on Medium by Nicole DeSantis, a policy advisor on the New York Declaration on Forests Global Platform with the U.N. Development Programme.
With centuries of traditional knowledge, indigenous peoples have a long and rich history of sustainably caring for their lands and forests, writes DeSantis. More than 370 million indigenous peoples living in 90 countries are working to maintain forests that are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.
She writes that one way to recognize their efforts to protect forests, nature and the climate is to factor indigenous rights into each country’s Nationally Determined Contribution — what DeSantis calls a country’s definitive climate map. At the moment, these rights are recognized in only a small fraction of plans.
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Learn more about these topics at the 18th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) 22 April – 3 May 2019 and at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany, 22-23 June 2019.