Overview
The seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), convened under the theme “Advancing Sustainable Solutions for a Resilient Planet,” will host a high-level special dialogue dedicated to Indigenous Peoples and their communities. This event will underscore the indispensable role of Indigenous knowledge systems, sciences, and practices in addressing the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Organized by the Indigenous Peoples and their Communities Major Group, this dialogue will serve as a platform to elevate Indigenous voices, foster inclusive environmental governance, and catalyze transformative partnerships for sustainable development.
Purpose and Significance
Indigenous Peoples are custodians of some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Their Indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage, and sustainable practices offer time-tested solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution and other environmental crises. Yet, these communities continue to face systemic marginalization, threats to their territories, and limited access to decision-making processes. This special event sought to:
- Recognize and protect Indigenous knowledge systems as vital to global sustainability.
- Promote Indigenous rights, including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and self-determination.
- Facilitate dialogue between Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and international institutions.
- Strengthen partnerships that integrate Indigenous perspectives into environmental policy and action.
Key Objectives
- Elevate Indigenous voices in global environmental dialogues and raise awareness of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, particularly their rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and self-determination over ancestral lands.
- Showcase the crucial contributions and solutions of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Sciences and Practices in addressing the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, degradation, desertification, deforestation, pollution and other environmental crises.
- Foster partnership opportunities between Indigenous communities, governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs.
