OFTERRITORIAL
JOINTDECLARATION OF THEINDIGENOUS PEOPLESOF THE WORLDTO THE CBD
RECOGNIZEOUR RIGHTS: THE FIRST STEP INHEALINGOUR MOTHER EARTH
Indigenous Peoples and nationalities, on the occasion of the 23rd meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and TechnologicalAdvice ( SBSTTA ) of the Convention on BiologicalDiversity ( CBD) , to be held from November 25 to 29, 2019, on the occasionof Workshop on ProtectedAreas in the framework of the post- 2020 process conducted by the CBD, to be held between December 1 and 3 , both events in Montreal, DECLARE THAT:
1. A prosperous nature is fundamentalto life on Earth. The food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe are pillarsof human survival, which depend on a series of delicately balancedinteractions inthe natural world . But greed and profit addiction has put us in a crisis that has reached a scale that threatens everything. There is an extinction of species at a rate a thousand times higher than normal, where two thirds of wild animalpopulations could disappear in the course of our lives. As with climate change, there is growing concern about the possibilityof reaching dangerous inflection points, which would cause the collapse of key ecosystems and threaten human survival on the planet.
2. Intimes of crisis, we need appropriate answersfor the world but also for the rights of the peoples and communities that live on the lands. That is why we are concernedthat NGOs are advocating for the protectionof only 30% of land and aquifer areas. Indigenous territories easily exceed that 30% , but inproposingthis, NGOs ignore this fact and position themselvesas conservationmanagers, and de facto impose a status quo position regarding their functions as climate finance operators and their needto be submissive toward governments.
3. Withoutconsultingus andwithout listeningto our proposals, conservationelites continue to ignorethat indigenouspeoples have innovative and realistic experiencesfor the protectionof biodiversity, even omittingthe explicit recognitionofscientists from the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change and the IntergovernmentalPlatformof Biodiversityand EcosystemServices, who this year have finally highlightedwith concrete data the contributionofour peoplesfor conservationandthe need to protect our rightsto guarantee climatestability andbiodiversity. 4. That is why we are lookingfor a simple solution: protect and allow the recovery of more than halfofthe planet in a naturalstate, with integral, functional and connected ecosystems, as well as manage all the land andoceansin a sustainableway, under the leadershipand active participationofindigenouspeoples, resultingin a planet where humanity and naturehave a chance, even as globaltemperaturesrise. Fiftypercent ofthe