On July 16 and 17 of this year, the Indigenous Youth Network (RED-LAC) held the “Training Workshop: Indigenous Youth as Guardians of Biodiversity”. The workshop was a space for information on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and a space for reflection to create recommendations on the road to the sixteenth Conference of the Parties – COP16. The workshop brought together 186 Indigenous Youth from 30 countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Philippines, France, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. The workshop was attended by Ms. Susana Muhamad González, Minister of Environment of Colombia; Ms. Sonia Guajajara, Minister for Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and Mr. David Cooper, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Our side event, during the COP16 session, aims to present the recommendations made by Indigenous Youth during the “Capacity Building Workshop: Indigenous Youth as Guardians of Biodiversity”.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework emphasizes the crucial role of Indigenous Peoples in the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biological diversity. From the perspective of Indigenous Youth, it is vital that its implementation respects, documents and preserves their biodiversity-related traditional knowledge, innovations, worldview, values ​​and practices, through their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

It remains clear that the principle of intergenerational equity must guide the implementation of the Framework, so the participation of Indigenous Youth is crucial for inclusive implementation. This is because we, the Indigenous Youth, are the link between emerging generations and previous generations, that is, we play a fundamental role as a bridge between children and the elderly. Our responsibility to Mother Earth is of utmost importance in the protection, respect and preservation of Biological and Cultural Diversity.

The perspectives of the Indigenous Youth in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework were put into dialogue, allowing the construction of a collective voice of the Indigenous Youth. This collective voice is of great interest to us, especially the transmission of the conclusions of the dialogue to different instances.