United Nations’ Post

Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal framework already names indigenous and traditional territories as part of how the 30 percent can be met, with free, prior and informed consent attached. The gap at COP17 is whether parties report those territories as conserved areas or keep them off the official maps.

Indigenous Peoples are not only protectors of culture and identity; their knowledge and stewardship are also deeply connected to biodiversity, land conservation, and long-term environmental resilience. Supporting their rights means protecting knowledge systems that benefit us all.

My experience supporting environmental engagement at Manitoba Hydro taught me that meaningful environmental progress depends on more than technical assessments and project plans. It also depends on how well we listen to the people whose lands, rights and livelihoods may be affected. Engaging with Indigenous communities reinforced for me the importance of approaching these conversations with respect, recognising that communities hold knowledge and perspectives that must be taken seriously in environmental decision-making.Indigenous Peoples should not simply be invited into conversations about protecting nature; their rights, voices and leadership must help shape the decisions themselves. We cannot claim to protect the environment while overlooking the rights of the people who have cared for it across generations. Respectful engagement must lead to meaningful participation, not just consultation.

Indigenous communities protect roughly 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity while representing less than 5% of the global population. The knowledge systems behind this stewardship took generations to build and are actively being lost. Protecting rights is not separate from protecting the environment. It is the environmental strategy. 🌏

We love to talk about saving the planet but we rarely ask who has been saving it all along. Indigenous Peoples manage roughly a quarter of the Earth's surface and not with big budgets or conferences they do it with knowledge passed down through generations, with respect for the land and with a simple understanding that you don't own nature you belong to it. Yet the people protecting the forests are often the ones whose rights are ignored, whose land is taken, and whose lives are threatened for defending it that's not just unfair. It's backwards. If we're serious about climate and biodiversity we have to stop treating Indigenous communities as a footnote and start treating them as leaders.

Indigenous communities have protected ecosystems for generations, yet their knowledge and voices are still too often overlooked in environmental decisions. Protecting nature must also mean protecting the people who have long cared for it, including their land rights and their right to shape decisions affecting their communities.

Indigenous Peoples are distinct cultural communities defined by ancestral ties to lands predating modern state borders, self-identification, and enduring traditional governance systems. Comprising over 476 million individuals worldwide—with the largest populations in nations such as India and China—they steward a quarter of the Earth's land and safeguard roughly 80% of its remaining biodiversity. Their intergenerational ecological and botanical knowledge underpins global food resilience and modern pharmaceutical discoveries, while their advocacy has reshaped international commerce by establishing Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) as an essential standard for ethical global development.

At Curated Holdings International, we believe that protecting biodiversity and integrating local knowledge into sustainable farming practices are essential to building resilient agricultural systems. Empowering farming communities while promoting responsible production is key to long-term food security and environmental sustainability. #CuratedHoldingsInternational #SustainableAgriculture #Biodiversity #ClimateSmartAgriculture

An important reminder from the United Nations that biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture must recognize the knowledge, rights, and contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. At Curated Holdings International, we believe that sustainable agricultural transformation begins with the people who manage the land. Across Uganda, smallholder farmers and rural communities possess generations of practical knowledge about soil health, crop diversity, natural resource management, and climate adaptation. As we strengthen our horticultural production and export value chains, we recognize the importance of integrating this knowledge with modern agricultural science, integrated pest management, responsible production standards, and climate-smart farming practices. Protecting biodiversity is not separate from agricultural productivity. It is fundamental to building resilient farming systems, safeguarding livelihoods, and ensuring long-term food security. The future of agriculture must be both commercially competitive and environmentally responsible, with farming communities actively participating in shaping that #CuratedHoldingsInternational #Biodiversity #SustainableAgriculture #ClimateSmartAgriculture

Imagine what would happen if the world walked the walk instead of just talked the talk when it comes to implementing indigenous wisdom… from stewardship of forests (controlled burns are vital, or we get the disastrous stewardship of the west coast of the U.S. which people pay with their lives and livelihoods) to the knowledge of water and aquatics, including early aquatic learning (see: Bajau laut and similar indigenous groups with have virtually zero drowning despite extremely high exposure— you’d think we’d would have learned from their example by now?) What will it take to walk the walk?