Entrevistas

Cultural Survival attended the international negotiations of the 12th session of the Intersessional Working Group on Article 8(j) relating traditional knowledge, innovation and practices of Indigenous Peoples under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on November 12-16, 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Johanna Von Braun from the International Land Coalition has been sharing some fascinating data on Indigenous Peoples' land tenure during the negotiations in Geneva. We asked Johanna to share some of that data with our audience.
Produced by Bryan Bixcul (Maya Tz'utujil)

The Convention on Biological Diversity, at it’s 15th conference of the Parties last year in Montreal, adopted a decision on digital sequence information on genetic resources, by which it established, as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund. To do this, the decision also established a working group tasked to further develop the multilateral mechanism and provide recommendations that will be considered at the upcoming COP16.

Representatives from the Global Environmental Facility -GEF- presented their plans for the implementation of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) established at COP15 last year. During the International Dialogue with Indigenous Peoples on the Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in Geneva, they revealed that there is no new mechanism to directly fund Indigenous-led or Indigenous-governed funds. Many Indigenous leaders have shared about the inefficiencies of the GEF system when it comes to access to funds for Indigenous Peoples.

Nature-based and net-zero solutions are again at the forefront of solutions offered by governments and businesses to deal with the climate crisis. These solutions include the creation of carbon market schemes and green energy production projects. We all know that nature-based solutions and net-zero solutions are false solutions, because they fail to address emissions reductions at source; instead they permit the destruction of ecosystems in one place for the promise of restoring ecosystems in another place.