The majority of the world’s most biodiverse areas are found within the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) and are conserved through traditional knowledge, customary sustainable use, spiritual and cultural values and customary laws. Indigenous and Traditional Territories are vital for achieving the GBF’s 30x30 target on area-based conservation, but are increasingly threatened by development pressures, exclusionary protected areas and erosion of traditional knowledge and cultural values. In the face of these threats, many IPLCs have started to restore and strengthen their collective territorial governance systems to protect their land rights and intrinsically linked biodiversity and cultural heritage – or biocultural heritage.

This side event will showcase IPLC-led initiatives to establish and strengthen collectively governed territories for customary sustainable use, and conservation and restoration of biodiversity. It will present TK-based concepts and methodologies that strengthen agency and revitalise traditional knowledge systems, as the basis for effective, equitable and long term conservation. The event will explore:

• How Indigenous holistic concepts, such as Andean ‘Sumaq Kawsay’ and ‘Ayllu’, and Indigenous methods and tools, have revitalised collectively governed wildlife-rich production landscapes, including indigenous food and seed systems (eg. in the Potato Park, Peru), and the important role of Indigenous women.
• The concept of biocultural heritage as a practical tool to strengthen Indigenous and Traditional Territories and OECMs, address multiple drivers affecting TK systems (including languages), and reaffirm nature-culture linkages.
• Initiatives to establish IPLC-governed biocultural territories to protect wildlife and agrobiodiversity-rich landscapes in Kenya, China, Peru, India and other countries, including through the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples’ (INMIP).
• Other examples of IPLC-led initiatives to protect Indigenous and Traditional territories using TK-based methodologies, eg. the work of IMPACT (Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation) with pastoralists in Kenya.

The event will highlight the extent to which Indigenous and Traditional territories can contribute to expanding area-based conservation to achieve 30x30, as well as the importance of IPLC’s own self-strengthening methodologies for building strong local institutions and securing legal recognition and protection of land tenure. It will also highlight the interlinkages between customary sustainable use and conservation in Indigenous and Traditional Territories, and the role of these territories in achieving multiple GBF Targets (T1, T2, T3, T4, T7, T10, T21, T22, T23), while contributing to the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. The event will provide evidence and examples to inform the development and implementation of a new human rights-based and GBF- focused Programme of Work on Article 8J and other provisions – particularly the work on sustainable use, conservation and restoration, knowledge and culture, and on the application of the Global Plan of Action on the Customary Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity.