 Thompson Reuters Foundation. The initiative promotes the importance of recognizing legal ownership of indigenous peoples and local communities' land rights as a prerequisite for achieving national and international goals for poorest governance, food security, climate migration, economic development, and human rights. The Land Dialogue series will run once a month until October, with each webinar tackling a different topic. I'm Laurie Gehring, I'm the Climate Change Editor at the Thompson Reuters Foundation, and I'm happy to be your host today. We have a fantastic panel who I'll introduce you to shortly, but first a bit of housekeeping. The webinar will take place in English, but it'll be simultaneously interpreted to Spanish, French, and Portuguese. If you'd like to access that interpretation, please see the channels located at the bottom of your screen. There's an icon there you can click to see your choices. We'll have opening remarks and a discussion for about an hour, and then we'll take questions from the audience, which should just about take us to the lot in under minutes. As you think of questions for our panelists today, please post them using the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen, not the chat box feature. I'll then select some of those questions and pass them on to our panelists. If you're on social media, feel free to tweet using the at land dialogues hashtag and follow live tweeting by the land portal and the 10-year facility Twitter accounts. I should add that today's session is being recorded, and you'll receive the link to it afterward. To begin, we'd like to get to know a bit about those of you in the audience. I know that there are about 600 people who have signed up for this webinar today, which is a reflection of the huge interest in today's topic. Let's find out a bit more about who's with us with a couple of short questions. You should see up on your screen now those questions. If you could please select one of the choices on which region you're based in, and we'd also like to ask you which sector you work in. If you could fill that in as well, that would be fantastic. Okay, interesting. It's looking like we have more participants from Asia today than anywhere else with Latin America and North America coming close after that, and in terms of different organizations, non-governmental organizations are the dominant one, but we have a lot of civil society people with us and students as well, so that's interesting. Thanks for that. Okay, so now let me introduce you to our panel today. First up, we have Dr. Passan Dolma Sherpa, who is Executive Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development, which has been working for more than a decade with Indigenous peoples at the local, national, and global levels to promote and recognize their traditional knowledge, cultural practices, skills, and customary institutions, which contribute to sustainable management of their natural resources, the forests, ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate change resilience. We also have with us Maricela Fernandez, who is a Capecar Indigenous leader, founder of the Katsako Women's Group, and an activist of Indigenous women's rights for more than 15 years. She's President of the Territorial Organization of Indigenous Women, which means Defenders of the Mountain. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she's been leading the cultural access of the care plan with her association. We also have Holly Jonas, who is the Global Coordinator of the IHIC Consortium. She's passionate about social and environmental justice and has a lifelong dedication to supporting those movements. After volunteering and working with the IHIC Consortium for more than 10 years, she now serves as the Global Coordinator of it. Holly draws from an interdisciplinary background in public international law, cultural anthropology, zoology, nonprofit leadership, transnational advocacy, and multimedia. Next, we have Duncan McQueen. He's an expert on forest enterprise issues and local to global governance processes that affect forests. He's currently the team leader on forests within the International Institute for Environment and Development, overseeing work under an overall goal of resilient, modest, prosperous people. As well, we have Osvaldo Nankimo, who is a Warrani activist, political spokesperson for the Warrani Resistance, a human rights and nature defender, and co-founder of the Sabo Alliance, a foundation that brings together people from the Aikopan, Siona, Seikopai, and Warrani indigenous peoples. It works to defend their rights to land and natural resources in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Osvaldo is currently stepping to become the first Warrani lawyer. Okay, let's get into the discussion and then the Q&A. Remember, you can submit questions via the box below, the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. That's not the chat box, it's on the right. In the spirit of allowing time for everyone to speak, I'd urge panelists to keep their answers relatively brief, not least so we can leave some time for all the questions. And I also would urge everyone to speak slowly to allow our interpreters time to make sure your comments reach all of our listeners. Osvaldo, let's start with you. How are indigenous peoples building climate change resilience? Can you bring or give us specific examples from your own community? Los abuelos dicen que éramos antes de aquí unos 10 años, 20 años atrás vivíamos diferente, pero actualmente sentimos como se ha cambiado diferente en ámbito de la lluvia y ahora no tenemos más como cacería y sentimos que nosotros creemos en nuestra casa y nos habla la selva misma marco en ámbito espiritual dice que el mundo nos castiga y cuando nos dicen los abuelos del mundo nos castiga y no entendemos por qué dicen ese mundo castiga, lo que nosotros a la madre naturaleza, la vida de la selva, nosotros mismos estamos como haciendo malas cosas dañando las castigando a la selva y la selva nos castiga. Entonces eso es como nosotros hemos dado cuenta que el mundo castiga porque nosotros no estamos haciendo una buena forma de cuidar la selva, cuidar el mundo, cuidar el oxígeno que tenemos la selva, la selva nos da el oxígeno para respirar pero a todos en el mundo, pero nosotros siempre hemos estado defendiendo, cuidando la selva, los árboles para que nos dé oxígeno para vivir bien, pero no es sólo vivir bien pero igual tenemos muchas amenazas que llega en nuestro territorio pero igual debemos como proteger desde las comunidades para la vida de nuestros hijos para dejar un legado histórico con con la selva limpio, territorio limpio, los ríos limpios, el oxígeno limpio para que los niños respire bien para que siga manteniendo nuestra cultura a larga generación. Okay, thank you so much Osvaldo. It's really interesting. Dr. Passan, can you answer the same question for us? How are indigenous peoples building climate change resilience? Can you give us some specific examples from your own community? Thank you. Thank you, Lauri for the question. As shared by Osvaldo, the situation of indigenous peoples and the role and contribution of indigenous peoples around the world is almost same. The indigenous peoples have continuously contributing for climate resilience because the resilience is part of their culture, part of their spiritual, their day to day life but the problem is that connection with the people, with the nature, the connectivity, the symbiotic relation has not been able to understand that has been the main causes of what we have been facing today. So, you know, when you see the example, there are plenty of example when you go to the community or when you are brought up when you are young and in the community, all the all the memories that we have lived so far when you recall those memories, how glorious we could could memorize how glorious those days were because we hardly had, you know, the carbon footprints because our culture, our practices, you know, it's really contributed for sustaining the resources. Indigenous people collect the resources only that they need for their survival, not on the grid base, not on the capitalistic worldview of getting more and more and more and more exploitation. So, those people and I would be more than happy to share just one, a few examples from our community in the context of Nepal. In Nepal, we have 59 and recently 60 indigenous different groups that has been legally recognized in 1990. Now, most of the indigenous peoples, almost more than 70% of the indigenous people is still living in the rural area. As you are already aware that how indigenous people have been contributing by the to the impacts of climate change, climate resilience, you know, the outcome of the study of many, many resources, including, you know, Iqbes or Ayushin or Ayalo or IPCC, you know. So, in Japan, it's one of the indigenous groups who are still living in the forest in the, in the, in the rural area. So, when Japan community, they go to the forest and collect the roots for their food, they always worship and then they, they take the permission before they take out the roots for their, for their, as the means of food for their family. And then also, they don't take all the roots, but they take one of the roots for their family and leaving the small plants and roots for next year. Similar examples of, you know, the mountain indigenous peoples like almost 90% of the communities in the mountain in Nepal are indigenous people. So, who are still depending on the herbal traditional medicinal for the treatment even in the pandemic. So, when they go to the, collect the forest for the, for the herbs and different medicinal plants, they collect only what is needed for them. And remaining the putting, you know, behind all the small, small plants and other plants to be collected next year. So, similarly, we have also one sacred tradition in Chumnuburi with the, the principles of non-violence principles. So, strictly forbidden of, you know, the prohibition from killing, even domestic or wild animals or even honey hunting or fire, you know, all this, our culture, our customary institution, governance system of the practices, our, you know, all a natural based solution and contributing for climate change resilience. But the problem we have been facing is not being understanding the connectivity of indigenous people and the nature. Thank you, Logan. Thank you. Yeah, this interest thing about resilience being part of the culture, it's really, you know, at the root of a lot of this, isn't it? Maricela, can we turn to you now? How are indigenous peoples building climate change resilience in your community, your part of the world? Can you give us some examples from your community? May take just a moment to get Maricela's video turned on and so on. Just give her a second. Are you able to hear us, Maricela? Give me a couple more minutes to see if we can sort that out. If not, we'll go on to our next panelist and we'll come back to you. I think we've all learned that these are uncertain times and we work as we, as we can. Okay, I'm going to move on just for the moment while we sort out getting Maricela on with us to Holly. Holly, in May this year, the ECA Consortium released a report on indigenous peoples and local communities' territories of life. The videos are beautiful, really impressive to watch. Can you tell us a bit more about that report, its findings and the key recommendations and a little bit about the authors as well? Absolutely. Thank you, Laurie, and thank you for the opportunity to share this space with such powerful indigenous leaders as well. It's wonderful to meet new people from around the world. So overall, the ICC Consortium's new report on territories of life really adds to this growing body of evidence that our fellow speakers have already shared today. It's this evidence that indigenous peoples and local communities are so central to sustaining the diversity of life on earth that it would be impossible to address our interlinked biodiversity and climate crises without them. And this report takes a unique local to global approach to understanding not just what indigenous peoples and local communities are doing to contribute to a healthy planet, but also how and why they are doing so. Nearly 100 people were involved in producing this report. It includes 17 case studies of specific territories from five continents, six national and regional analyses focusing on the legal policy recognition, and the most up-to-date global spatial analysis of how much of the planet is likely conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities. And it's backed up by an executive summary of all of these components. So it's kind of multi-level, multi-components report. And I'll briefly share the slide over all key findings. And I hope you can check out the full report, especially the students on the call. We always appreciate feedback. So the first key finding is that as our fellow speakers have shared already, indigenous peoples and local communities play an outsized role in the governance, conservation and sustainable use of the world's biodiversity and nature. They actively protect and conserve this astounding diversity of species, of habitats and ecosystems, which in turn provides the basis for clean water and air, healthy food and livelihoods for people far beyond their boundaries. The second key finding is that indigenous peoples and local communities' contributions to a healthy planet are rooted in and inseparable from the deep relationships between their cultures, their collective lands and territories, their governance systems, and the other species and spiritual beings with whom they coexist. They're also contributing significantly to the world's cultural and linguistic heritage. The third key finding is that indigenous peoples and local communities are the de facto custodians of many existing protected and conserved areas that are recognized officially by governments. And they're also conserving an estimated 17% of the world's land outside of these official protected and conserved areas. So if they were appropriately recognized alongside the quote-unquote official ones, the total coverage would increase to 31% of the world's land, which already surpasses these global calls for 30% protected and conserved by 2030. Now, however, as I'm sure many people in this webinar know, in a significant number of the case studies in this report, indigenous peoples and local communities have really contentious relationships with the mainstream conservation sector, depending on the extent to which their rights and governance systems and ways of life are respected and upheld. In other cases, though, they are strategically trying to use protected area laws and different conservation designations to defend against other threats such as mining. Now, fourth, indigenous peoples and local communities are on the front lines of resisting the main industrial drivers of global biodiversity loss and climate breakdown, including mining, oil and gas, logging, and monoculture plantations. They often face violence and retribution for resisting these industries, and these threats can have cumulative and compounded effects on communities, which in turn pose longer-term threats to their resilience. However, they continue to resist and respond in really powerful and diverse ways. And this leads to the final key finding, which is that even in the face of these immense threats, whether from top-down conservation or from harmful industries, indigenous peoples and local communities have extraordinary resilience and determination. They're adapting to rapidly changing contexts and using diverse strategies to secure their rights and territories. Although they do sometimes face setbacks, they have made key advances, and they're continuing to do so in pursuit of self-determination, self-governance, peace, and sustainability. Now, as the UN negotiations in the biodiversity and climate processes intensify this year, the time really is now to recognize indigenous peoples and local communities as the true agents of transformative change. And supporting them to secure their rights and collective lands and territories of life is arguably this key missing link in global commitments as well as national-level implementation. And therefore, it's also a huge opportunity for leadership and convergence in these negotiation processes. So in practical terms, pursuing this agenda will require a massive increase in social, political, legal, institutional, and financial support for indigenous peoples and local communities, primarily from state governments, but also from public and private financial institutions. So it's really time, I think, for social movements and civil society organizations working on all these different issues, whether it's human rights, conservation, climate justice, or land issues, to really come together and work on this shared agenda together. So I really hope that helps summarize. I'd be happy to respond to any further questions and I'll add a link to the report in the chat box as well. Thank you, Laurie. Thank you. It is interesting how this is an opportunity to bring together so many different communities that might not have thought of themselves and, you know, I was working on the same efforts. Maricela, are you with us? Can you hear me? And there you are, fantastic. I'll speak slowly. I know we need to get some interpretation done, but we would love to hear how indigenous peoples are building climate change resilience in your communities, and particularly to hear a few examples of how that's happening. Maricela, you are muted. Can we unmute Maricela, please? We don't want to miss what she says. Ah, perfect. I think we can hear you now. Porque de ahí como poniendo en práctica lo que es la siembra cultural de la producción tradicional con ese conocimiento ancestral, también como se llama la forma de producción tradicional que está basado en la categoría nuestra. Eso hace que nosotros podamos rotar la tierra y podamos sembrar culturalmente y también como se llama nosotros hemos participado en lo que es la parte de construir el liderazgo de la mujer del principio cosmogónico cultural con con nuestra propia posmovisión indígena, porque ahí es donde nace la base principal donde nosotros podemos decir cómo queremos abordar la siembra cultural, las plantas medicinales, la conservación de los de los recursos naturales este el como se llama el conocimiento que nos hereda nuestros ancestros pues ponen poniéndole en prácticas de nuestro trabajo diario que tenemos que trabajar como pueblos indígenas. En esto hemos trabajado como ha mejorado digamos la siembra cultural lo que la seguridad alimentaria de las familias trabajamos con 110 familias en el territorio donde yo vivo este se ha mejorado digamos se ha mejorado la seguridad alimentaria los intercambios los trueques que a base de ese conocimiento cultural nuestros mayores nos han dicho bueno por la pandemia hay que retrocederlos y tenemos que volver a nuestra cultura a nuestra posmovisión a nuestra identidad cultural porque eso es que marca la diferencia porque porque nosotros quizás en este momento este anteriores nosotros estábamos enfocado muchos en la en la producción este monocultivo y entonces esto esto nos afecta de una manera de que nosotros tenemos que trabajar diversificada las parcelas fincas agroforestales producción sostenible y que también fortalesca el medio ambiente y entonces todo esto trabajo nos hemos nos hemos enfocado y ahí es donde hemos trabajado a la feria del estanco indígena de treque virtual donde hemos intercambiado semilla así como el museo vivo reguardo de semilla este semillas crioyas que sea resistente al cambio climático ya que ya que en estos momentos que estamos viviendo el tiempo que se nos ha complicado que hay terribles inundaciones igual manera hay momento a otro hay hay mucho mucho verano entonces este hemos venido trabajando desde de principio de nuestra de nuestro territorio ante esta situación ante la pandemia de que nosotros podamos enfocarnos algo culturalmente y fortalecer ese conocimiento cultural fortalecer ese ese principio de nuestra de nuestra identidad cultural basado a todo lo que mencioné a la creación de la de de de estos cuatro sistemas productivas que nosotros nos hemos enfocado en la parte de la sistema producción tradicional el estanco indígena de treque virtual los proyectos culturales de artesanía que son cosas que nosotros son nuestra pero lo hemos descuidado así nos hemos enfocado en esto y en las puertas tradicionales que que también tenemos en nuestras parcelas entonces esos son las acciones concretas que nosotros hemos tenido trabajando como organización gracias I'm going to give just a second for the interpreters to catch up on on that thank you it's really interesting to hear about the farming okay next we would like to go to Duncan who has had some interesting recently published case studies written by local forest and farm producer organizations and funded directly by the forest and farm facility about those organizations efforts to become climate resilience Duncan can you tell us a little bit about those yes thanks Laurie um yeah the forest and farm facility it's a partnership and it directly funds um indigenous peoples and forest and farm producer organizations to achieve four main things better policies more enabling policies stronger businesses and then climate resilience is the third one alongside social and cultural protection services for marginalized groups and by the end of 2020 I think some 99 organizations out of the many hundreds we support had developed these climate resilience plans across 10 partner countries where we're working so the way the fff works is to co-produce knowledge we understand that farmer groups learn best from one another in sort of peer to peer learning um but it also helps to uh dip into the academic world to make sure what we're spreading knowledge about is best practice so we did two two things we invited um some farmer organizations and their support partners to to write these 10 case studies about their climate resilience plans um from places like Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Nepal and Vietnam and uh these were published last year and at the same time we were looking at the the we were doing some research to to to think about how other people are describing climate resilience and ways to approach it and from that literature we documented 30 different practical ways that people are becoming more resilient um now uh we planned a big exchange with the producer organizations that were scheduled to happen in Vietnam where they would see these climate resilience things but COVID-19 put put pay to that so instead we've been trying to arrange webinars to to exchange views and and and experiences on this topic um and and a critical point from the case studies is that you know uh farmer resilience or small holder resilience or indigenous peoples resilience it's not just about the farming system although that's very important but there are a range of practical sets of things they can do um and which we we we came up with these 30 different things and ecologically uh they can of course do things like plant more resilient crops or um livestock or enrich their soils or plant nitrogen fixing trees manage pests and diseases better so lots of ecological things that mean less failure on the farm um socially of course they can do many things as well they can strengthen their voice and representation for rights um link to other organizations that can help them with services and technical support um for their even their businesses less isolation and then economically it helps to upgrade your your businesses and to diversify what you produce so that there's less risk of failure um diversifying not just the different products but sort of packaging and marketing having more ways of selling what you do so more stable incomes and and finally you can you can invest in a whole range of sort of physical and technological things everything from fire breaks and building terraces and irrigation to to uh communications using mobile phones and and so on um what was really striking about all this is that once we've done the the look at what people were saying about resilience when we went back to our 10 case studies from forest and farm producers we found that most of the local forest and farm organizations were already doing most of these things you know they're wizards at resilience already and and I guess they have to be in order to survive and and I think that was the striking thing yeah it's so interesting isn't it you always hear this saying that necessity is the mother of invention right and and it's impressive to me is as we report on a lot of these things how many of the solutions have already come out of local communities um you know well ahead of when people in the north actually began to start thinking about these things um Duncan we would love to just hear a little bit more specifically about one of these case studies can you tell us a bit more about the one from Zambia which is about the diversified climate resilient business model of the Tuba Leque Club that's right yes certainly um yes it's a it's a 26 member woman's enterprise group called the Tuba Leque Women's Club and it's in a very dry southwest Zambia in Choma district I wish she could meet their leader Juliet Machona she should have been doing this but she's a real star really inspiring and it's a tough place to live the rains are becoming increasingly erratic with climate change the growing seasons shortening often to less than 80 days barely enough time to grow your staple crops so this woman's group formed formed in about 2002 trying to get a fertiliser credit program from the government that was long since finished when we met them and they approached the forest and farm facility to see if we could help them with climate resilient livelihoods um so we provided a bit of training and then we've been supporting them through several years based around their own plans for enterprise development and climate and they they'd identified a way of diversifying away from subsistence agriculture by a basket weaving from local bamboo and grass there's a good local market for that in in the local towns and they'd set up this savings and loans fund to build up their finances and that was really the foundation of of their resilience um so for example from the profits from the basket selling they then diversified into rearing pigs and and sheep and then with the animal manure they installed a sort of a biogas cook stove facility for the women and and the the biogas creates obviously the waste product is slurry which is it's it's um it's very good fertilizer for their agricultural crops um and uh and so they're they're in a tough climate so they're planting bamboo to keep the basket weaving growing but um in about the second year of their activity they a major drought hit um southern Zambia and it was really their social organization and their savings um and loans group that that saved them because they they pumped in effect a whole year's profit just into feeding the women and their families during during the drought um but you know the droughts the drought was over and and being a strong group has really helped them strengthen their their options and so one of the things they've managed to do was to attract some some outside project funding to install a borehole and that's a real um you know god send for them in in that environment and now they hope to be able to grow their own animal feed with a little bit of irrigation as well as diversifying into vegetable production um so so you can see that the women's you know group is is doing a whole heap of things to become more resilient they're real champions at it you know they've diversified what they've produced to give them more options um in ecologically so they have less risk of farm failure um they've strengthened their group and their network social networks and links um to including to something called the Zambia National Forest Commodity Association which helps the market some of their products like the baskets and they've they've broadened their business options not just basket weaving but livestock and and perhaps vegetables in the future and and they're upgrading their infrastructure their boreholes and irrigation getting mobile phones to contact markets biogas composting and so on so they're already when you actually tot it up of those 30 different things you could do they're doing about half of them um of all the practical options we documented from the academic literature and that's really the message is that these people these groups are very competent at climate resilience and also the sort of resilience they're building is often involving forest and plant stuff that that helps mitigate climate change as well so it's a win-win for everyone so interesting is that pretty typical Duncan of groups or are the is this group really particularly good at it no in fact i'm i picked probably the the most remote and smallest and weakest group uh just because they survived the drought through this process but actually some of the groups are much higher up the list of 30 than doing really quite sophisticated things involving finance and credit and all sorts so we're producing a a book on it called diversification for resilience it'll be out later than it this year and you can you can see some of the the examples in it okay no it's also really interesting to actually see things tested in sort of real time while you're there rather than just wondering how that's going to hold up in the future so yeah um dr pass on can i can i turn to you i was curious in your view whether indigenous peoples and local communities are sufficiently involved in this discussion on how to adapt to climate change kind of at all levels what what do you think are they still on the outskirts and not involved enough um lauri i could not put my video on maybe i don't know uh maybe okay don't don't worry just go ahead and speak to us and the team can maybe help you okay just just to be sometimes face to face would be maybe better sure being you know the virtual has already made people so far away and hiding inside the cotton makes more far away so just try just to uh we can see you now there you are okay good now i feel more live to be connected with all of you yeah i think uh uh thank you for the question so you just tell the question is more like how uh the discussion is going on in the indigenous people so could you please repeat one more the question yeah sure i'm just i was curious how you see indigenous peoples and local communities being involved in these discussions at all levels on how to adapt to climate change are are they sufficiently involved or are they still at the at the fringes of these discussions oh okay got it yeah thank you thank you yeah i as uh from uh the from the discussion earlier also uh source like uh somehow the indigenous peoples and the local communities issues and concerns is on the table of discussion right because of maybe different projects or initiatives like that and the efforts of efforts of uh engaging of indigenous people local communities we can already feel uh you know in all level either in international or regional or even national or local no if you see an international level maybe i just give you some few examples of how the uh the efforts of engaging indigenous people and local communities already started along with the adoption of the uh local communities and indigenous people platform by the UNCCC United Nations Framework Prevention Climate Change of I think of 21 in 2015 in Paris so along with establishment of the platform of indigenous people and local communities that has been a kind of you know you know starting point of officially I mean like you know engaging of indigenous peoples on the same table as uh state parties because in I have been also following the climate change negotiations and almost more than a decade since 2009 in my experience in in those days in 2008 2009 when I was a really beginner in following this negotiation they just to point out the indigenous people name in the just in the you know even in the bracket of the negotiation is a really out of your imagination but now you can see like I was actually the former co-chair of the LC of the UNCCC and then I was working as a co-chair along with the co-chair of the state party so that was obviously seemed like a discussion at the international level internal internalizing the important role and contribution of indigenous people is already felt in the UNCCC as the as CVD and also sustainable developments in all other the internationals of the discussion and discourse in relation to climate change however you know even in even the discussion of that international's engagement of indigenous people in the same level at the state parties however there are still a lot of challenges because of the capacity buildings the awareness level of indigenous people to have their meaningful and effective participation along with the other concerned bodies that part is there but another part is the capacity of not only indigenous people but other state parties and other negotiators for understanding the role and contribution of indigenous people that is the part is also a big gap you know because first of all for the meaningful participation the you know indigenous people's own role and capacity is another challenging part but the more than that another challenging part is not understanding the role and contribution of indigenous people for climate change resilience that is more worst part of challenges so at the national level if you see in some example like a few countries like Sweden, Mexico, Canada they have a few examples we can count it you know how they are really engaging indigenous peoples on the climate discourse at the national level in the climate change policy framework Nepal is also in progressive states in comparison to when you see the past 10 years you know the engagement of indigenous people however the one of the most challenging I have felt like at the national level in the context of Nepal most of the climate change framework you know the climate change policy framework like for example national adaptation plan or you know national determined contribution that they have submitted to the UN people see more are basing on the secondary data you know so the absence of this aggregated data especially to reflect that how indigenous people and local communities women have contributed for climate change resilience why they are not active actors the key actors in the in the discourse of climate change in the you know in the solution of climate change and the resilience of climate to deal with the you know this whole crisis is hardly been reflected so so this is a big gap and challenges so so having said that there are much more things to be done in terms of capacity building full and meaningful engagements in the climate discourse in all level it's really interesting that that women are still still left out now you know after after so long of trying to push ahead on this certainly it's an ongoing problem and I think your question about this kind of meaningful participation is going to be a big one and and not just for indigenous people coming up at COP26 as we try to deal with the vaccine travel restrictions and and online systems that are not always perfect for everyone particularly in the more remote place you're coming from I was just curious to the you know is is there anything particular you're wanting to see out of COP26 this year given you've been following the policy so closely yeah actually you know the COP26 is you know we have been sterilizing ourselves very closely especially I'm still the member of the FWG of the LC in the UN triple C representing Asia along with the seven social eco social cultural reasons around the world along with the state parties there we have been putting I have been co-leading three of the out of 12 activities in in order to propose to fulfill the three purpose of the LC the knowledge capacity building climate change policy action so in order to reach three purpose of this platform we have been implementing different activities so one of the three three activities out of 12 what I'm actively I mean I'm directly involved as a co-lead is like engaging state parties layers of the dialogue with the indigenous people leaders and on the same table dialogue with the state parties to understand how important role indigenous people have been playing like for example the like kind of dialogue now you are holding now like you know sharing experience because that party is really lacking no because indigenous people are often misinterpreted right because indigenous people have been seen like objectively rather subjectively right so so this is the time that indigenous people speak their own voice rather been interpreted or reinterpreted by another voice right and that's how the misinterpretation on the role and contribution of indigenous people no so that is what we have been doing the most important part we have been doing is how we can promote the indigenous people curriculum in the formal and informal education so we are inviting all the ministries who are really promoting for indigenous knowledge in the respective country in line with the action climate empowerment that is one of the constituent bodies of the UN triple C as well as the different university and research centers we've been working on closely with indigenous people to promote and encourage and also to make sure that indigenous people's knowledge system will be you know implemented through their education curriculum so that our young generation will learn the values the cultural spiritual values that contributed for climate change resilience thank you so much that's that's really interesting and I think something people can get involved in and if they like yeah more than happy to you know response if there is an equality yeah you know where to find her yeah as as well though I'd like to turn back to you now how can resilience be strengthened in your community do you think and then what one of those lessons that you've learned in resilience can be transferred to other communities nearby and further field in our message from this nationality of indigene or oran and ecuador of amazon that we live in a full world of the world that there are quite a lot of trees like mega diverse so we from the community have learned the fight and the resistance against extractivism with the state with the patrolers so we have given a hard battle and we have won with governments with the patrolers as judicial sentences we have won that is the resistance that is in favor of climate resilience and we our message as a partner said that sometimes the indigenous people of the government the western people think that we don't know we don't know we don't know how to think white people are thinking that's what I think is wrong I want to say very clearly we do know how to govern our territory to manage our territory or that we are the only ones in the world to protect the air in the world but people do not understand then that message we want the world to join the fight in favor of climate change to sustain in the long term currently in our community in the jungle we are working a lot a meeting of young people because the wise grandparents they are as fundamental who have led for a long time as protecting the jungle but the new youth does not understand that it is the climate change that is the defense of the territory the rights of us do not understand that they only want to exploit the resources but it is very important that we have made ourselves as indigenous or any meeting of two knowledge as the wise of the wise and the youth a meeting that is like a good way a good signal about climate change or climate resilience and to have a connection two together because the youth and we speak Spanish some speak English but what they live as leaders like the advisors the grandparents who have defended the jungle speak only Obrani with another language as right now we are a constant connection to be ready anything that reaches our territory to stop to protect the jungle because sometimes a lot of white mestizo in Ecuador has yielded the indigenous are eager to speak of defense or that we want to take out to develop the country but the same white people made the government do not understand we are defenders we protect so that the world lives people live in the cities with good oxygen but the people just want to come to take out to exploit the fire and leave the death and contamination but the white mestizo the government does not think like us as indigenous we protect the jungle to give better oxygen in the world that is like the message we want some opportunity to continue speaking to continue joining as more communication strategy so that the world is visible the fight for climate resilience also changes the climate that happens in the world thank you very much thank you it is really interesting what you say about the you know having fought so many hard battles over the years and this ability of resistance I mean you know how to to govern and protect your territory which is is is saying something is certain certainly the kind of knowledge that many other places around the world that need protection could learn from and and it's interesting that you mentioned you and how to manage that because I think we're going to turn to our questions and answer a section now and I actually have a first question for you about that but let me first just remind everyone if you'd like to ask a question there's still plenty of time to put those in um and if you just go down to the q&a button at the bottom that will open up for you and feel free to type your question in any language that that you're comfortable with at least Spanish Portuguese French or English and and we'll make sure it gets to to people in the right language that they understand um first uh I'd like to ask Osvaldo but also Maricela on this one how how are youth involved in climate change action in your country and in your community if you could talk us through a little bit of that um can we start with you Osvaldo? como yo yo soy como tercera cuarta generación oran y que he ha salido hablar español pero mi pueblo habla otro idioma uavotirero entonces esa es la conexión que tenemos la voz como hacia afuera de esa comunidad dando mensaje hacia afuera y trabajando juntos con con dos con dos sabiduría en la comunidad ha sido como muy bueno la juventud actual que que llamamos a muchos jóvenes con muy jóvenes llamamos en nuestro encuentro de asamblea grande para discutir analizar que queremos el cómo vamos a ser lo frente la amenaza que puede llegar en nuestro territorio estamos haciendo más vinculado la participación colectiva decisión colectiva enseñando la juventud porque igual la juventud luego en el futuro debe llegar a este liderazgo de de enfrentar lucha por su territorio y más especialmente como la gente llega a nuestro territorio porque igual la acción decimos que la juventud trabaje con mucho reflexión con mucho diálogo a favor de esos recursos que tenemos en la selva porque igual sin la juventud no funciona en nuestra comunidad sin juventud no va a ir muy lejos porque los sabios líderes abuelos van a perder muy tiempo corto tiempo porque ya son adultos pero la juventud es un legado histórico pero necesitamos capacitar formar líderes que sean nuevos líderes entonces la acción ha sido de la juventud con mucho como aprender como una formación constante porque la juventud es el al va a ser como futura generación liderando con su territorio no entonces ese es como importante la juventud vincular o que a veces la juventud nosotros mucho tiempo hemos dejado un lado solo con los líderes no entonces la hay que vincular como hay que participar para que entienda que aprenda porque ese es el camino de nuestro sueño no eso eso es como yo pienso que estamos haciendo en como más acción el campo okay thank you that's really interesting um maricela can i can i ask you the same thing uh about uh that what you're seeing with youth involved in in climate change action in your community in your in your country how is that going can you hear us maricela we can hear you we can hear you we can't see you yet but that's not so important go please go ahead i'll let the translator my question was with how are youth involved in climate change action in your community in your country okay los conocimientos culturales tradicionales por por defender la naturaleza lo que es la parte de lo que es lo que hablé las plantas medicinales la defensa del territorio la gobernanza territorial es como se llama todo lo que tiene que ver con lo que es la parte cultural nuestro entonces por eso es que hemos retrocedido y hemos trabajados por los por los ancianos por los mayores para que estos jóvenes se puedan capacitar y escuchar a nuestros nuestros ancianos y puedan este ver que que por qué es importante conservar los recursos naturales porque es importante las plantas medicinales porque es importante la agricultura tradicional porque es importante para nosotros como pueblos indígenas con la conservación de los bosque para la para la protección de las nascientes y quebrada este la diversificación de de productos agrícolas todo esto para para lo que es la parte de la de lo que es el cambio para acción de cambio climático porque nosotros este muchas veces nuestros jóvenes este están que no quieren participar y desconocen totalmente la parte cultural porque es que nosotros lo defendemos entonces ahí es donde entra la parte de los talleres comunitarios con los jóvenes para que puedan escuchar porque este cómo se puede construir los las casas culturales los ranchos culturales que nosotros decimos este porque es importante este cuáles son los los materiales y las herramientas que se utilizan para esa construcción y porque es importante esa construcción cuáles cuál es su su su importancia y y la espiritualidad la conexión con el bosque eso es algo que nosotros este hemos venido descuidando pero la los jóvenes ya ya se ha involucrado ya han venido escuchando a los mayores y hemos venido trabajando en conjunto en el tema de también la de sanía cultural que es otro conocimiento cultural que nosotros tenemos como pueblo pero lo hemos venido ya hemos anteriormente lo hemos descuidado pero hoy hemos venido trabajando con los jóvenes en esos temas y hoy ante la pandemia la pandemia nos sirvió para fortalecer ese re-encuentro que dejó venas sobre los conocimientos culturales porque porque en la pandemia de la pandemia se utilizó mucho lo que es la planta medicinal quizá mucha persona ya no creía en la planta medicinal y la pandemia en los territorios indígena lo compartimos con las medicinas traicionas y entonces ellos desconocían para qué sirve cuál es y cómo se llama y cuál es su función y entonces ahí es donde entramos al taller de los que es talleres culturales para que todos podamos encontrarlo y tener un re-encuentro y ver para atrás lo importante que son los conocimientos como polis indígena y el aporte que hemos hecho para lo que el cambio climático la resistencia pues hemos sido una base tan fundamental para el desarrollo para para la humanidad porque toda la conservación el aire lo que hemos conservado nosotros como territorios indígena pues eso no solamente le va a servir a los territorios eso es eso es para para todo todo lo que vivimos en el planeta siempre como son pueblos indígenas donde quiera que estemos en cual con cualquier país del mundo nuestro principios es conservar la naturaleza conservarlo protegerlo cuidarla y y ahí tenerla siempre como para nosotros es es es algo sagrado es delicado porque no eso nosotros lo defendemos y esa y ese y esa esa con ese conocimiento lo tenemos que seguir transmitiendo porque somos los mejores ingenieros forestales sabemos que por qué sirve esto y en cuánto tiempo trabajamos con la rotación de la luna en qué momento yo puedo ir a sembrar en qué momento yo puedo cortar este árbol y cómo puedo al cortar uno cómo replicando más sembrando más y entonces toda esa parte de ese conocimiento es donde donde la juventud ha entrado a participar activamente para conocer ese conocimiento construir una casa cultural yo quiero construir una casa cultural pero cómo se hace entonces ahí están los mayores enseñando cómo se hace porque se hace cuáles son los los los árboles que se usan para la construcción y todo ese conocimiento de verdad y entonces este si hemos aportado muchísimo yo somos los mejores mejores grupos que puede decir mejores personas territorios indígenas donde estamos aportando al cambio climático y sin necesidad que a mí me diga que hágalo es una forma de trabajo nuestro es una forma de nuestra evidencia cultural de que tenemos que conservar y proteger y y mejorar ahora con el tiempo de que estamos con cambio climático pues cada vez hacemos mejor las cosas cada vez este aportamos más si hay algo así hay algo que mejorar mejoramos y hay algo que que que reactivar reactivamos si hay algo que aporta aportamos pero nosotros como territorios indígenas somos los mejores defensores del bosque somos los que hemos aportado de generación en generación somos las mejores escuelas ambientales y forestales en los en en a nivel mundial gracias it is it is really very interesting to consider these things about how the pandemic is affecting all these efforts and it sounds like it's work but you're making some progress with the youth which is great i wanted to move on through the questions we have so many good ones here and i want to get to as many as we can we have a question about raising the indigenous voice is that this is an issue across so many national and international platforms but part of the problem is that those platforms and commissions and that kind of thing this this questioner is saying or ultimately deaf to that voice so how do you get them to genuinely listen and engage is there anyone who'd like to answer that one yeah i think i can i can just move that one yeah how we can you know genuinely recognize the voice of indigenous people or the engagement of indigenous peoples for that one as i as i would like to reiterate again what i said earlier that you know the first of all that the we indigenous people also need to understand our role and contribution our our contribution for the climate and resilience because as earlier friends i think was also mentioned that many indigenous people community they think like maybe there was a cause because of their past something we did bad something happened no it's never you know just always blaming themselves right but the but the reason of the climate change the climate crisis the environmental crisis is another one right so that kind of awareness is very important to be there but the effective engagement is obviously building the capacity and level of awareness as i said earlier for the meaningful participation i just want to give one examples of you know how the indigenous peoples have contributed for climate change resilience and that that understanding is very very fundamental to be understood to be internalized no and see from the indigenous peoples worldview the problem here is always the indigenous peoples traditional livelihoods our practices spiritual connectivity always been seen like you know department compartment right like a black and white okay indigenous people is there for climate change adaptation or mitigation or resilience or land tenure or what no but but the problem is that you know indigenous people worldview is you know it's a holistic worldview no everything is interconnected like spider wave right one strand is been connected to another strands because that's where the meaning comes from you know the the fundamental like what been effort from the you know tenure facility for recognition of indigenous peoples of customary governance system their land and forest tenure would be the basis for you know recognition of their customary governance their knowledge system value system because there's no legal recognition of indigenous peoples in the discourse of climate change or discourse of land tenure security or anything like that because of that one there's an absence of you know there's a continuation of you know kind of you know losing the self-respect you know that and not only losing the self-respect but also not giving the importance of our knowledge values and our culture and spiritual that is so worth of knowledge to deal with this climate crisis so that that that understanding is need to be understood and this kind of discourse would be continued global regional national even local level so that all the agencies be aware how important indigenous people have been contributing I just give you one example before I end like in Thailand one case in Thailand where 39 indigenous groups in Thailand current is one of the one of the communities current is one of the indigenous groups highest numbers of the indigenous groups they have the different provision I just want you know they said they have the provision of all TQ tau T like if you drink water you have to protect water you know another is all called TQ tau like if you use the forest you should better take care so see the province promises also comes from your culture from your ritual practices and also another part is in in the current community which is similar in indigenous people in the Tharai belt of Nepal and also in India that you know the the ambicle court when the baby is born the ambicle court is in tight in the forest in the tree in the forest so the ambicle court is when it's been tied in the forest tree the tree represents the boy or the girl whose ambicle court is been tied so even after the death the whole community believes the soul is there so the trees is to be protected so more the growth of the you know more you have population of indigenous people more trees there so see there you know and when you have a more tree and biodiversity conservation you know you don't need to talk about like a whole modern kind of solution of resilience see if you just understand that our culture values there is a resilience there is a non-natured resolution everything is there but the things is we have to open our eyes with a holistic worldview of the images no it's really i mean these examples are so fascinating and i think that leads really well into another question that we have here from someone who says that their their experiences in Borneo and they said that their indigenous communities they know about climate change but they don't know that they know about climate change you know this this is the name isn't put on that that thing that they know and that that can make it hard for to find strategies to kind of elicit and draw out this knowledge effectively so that others can use it i'm curious if any of our panelists have any good examples of how you've managed to to pull something like that that you've just been talking about out and and use it to influence something broader or another community uh holly or Duncan or uh anyone else who's on the ball crack at that one okay i mean um yeah it is a big challenge um how to get these examples taken seriously and i think probably the answer lies in in um organization so uh working carefully to document uh stories from many different locations but then perhaps channel them upwards into things like um the asias asian farmers association or the east african farmers federation and these are big powerful voting blocks that governments have to take seriously when they when they listen um i think in this in this world with there's so much information uh decision makers are bombarded and um and so i think it matters a lot who who is speaking and and especially if if organizations work together and to form alliances powerful alliances i think that can can really help so i think the you know the indigenous groups working on the if not us then who um you know tight platform it's really clear messaging very effective and they represent lots and lots of people and so that can be quite persuasive now i can imagine yeah having the numbers behind it uh is is is a big help right and and i often wonder whether there's not room even for kind of at the other end of the scale just kind of good storytelling about this you know maybe we need some novels or theater or something that begins to pull these things into greater public consciousness i think that's right and and not allowing it to become the preserve of jargon i mean there's so many terms out there on nature-based solutions climate-based adaptation um sort of forest landscape restoration integrated agriculture climate smart agriculture and that puts the the the agenda in the hands of the experts so keeping it simple and practical and and and stories a good way of doing it yeah yeah i think so um i wanted to ask there's a question here that says a lot of the large finance organizations including the world bank are are putting money into conservation finance i mean certainly we're seeing more examples almost by the day of different programs for this and our questioner says that indigenous peoples and local communities are rarely considered directly in this other than just being mentioned as lip service in it is there some way to influence these large you know largely western global north organizations and and really shift their attitude and approaches on this do any of our panelists have any uh experience with that holly have you seen anything on that are you still with us yes i hope so i was yeah we can hear you picking me off every option there sorry uh yeah i think it's a it's a question and there's a lot of things starting to happen uh as you said or not just big announcements of you know new funds and so on but also some interesting processes within parts of the finance sector moving towards more transparency more accountability more focus on human rights and justice issues and so on so this is happening within private foundations in the philanthropic world it's happening within stock exchanges uh you know pressuring major oil and gas companies for example to disclose human rights environmental impacts and and so on and so forth so i think in the conservation industry there's a real need to place more emphasis on human rights based financing for conservation uh so really requiring human rights to be respected and upheld in any fun funding that's going to let's say large conservation NGOs to government agencies implementing protected areas private actors and so on so there really needs to be much stronger emphasis on human rights in financing uh financial chains i guess and the supply chain we can consider it almost a conservation supply chain really a lot of it is is is rooted in the financing part of that so where is money coming from where is it going to and how um so we need that and absolutely they're speaking back to the the person who asked the question um there is a very tiny proportion of financing going directly to indigenous peoples and local communities that absolutely needs to change i mean there are there are some agencies and institutions that oops sorry we can hear you came through sorry spanish came through the english channel um so there are different agencies there's the the UNDP small grants program there's as Duncan said in in the chat um forest and farm facility there's a whole bunch of different small grant opportunities a growing number of indigenous led foundations which is super exciting um that are really rooted in indigenous worldviews and values and so on so i'd really love to see more of that happening uh and strengthening indigenous organizations capacities to manage grants and to do these kinds of things themselves so that it's not just co-opted by the big conservation NGOs it's interesting do you think that the kind of growing focus on ESGs and the kind of pressure around that can can help drive that or is that going to be not so helpful i think so i mean i think i think the conservation industry gets away with a lot a lot of human rights issues and maybe also environmental issues because it's this you know conservation organizations oh they're trying to do good things for the planet so let's kind of look the other way when actually not very good things are happening um so there needs to be a lot more transparency and accountability among the major players in the conservation industry as well as within the financing streams that are up basically propping up those big conservation organizations and how they often operate yeah thank you holly that's it's really interesting um i think this next one is a question from marisela um our questioner is asking what strategies can be adopted for strengthening the representation of indigenous women in decision-making when their own leadership and mainstream patriarchal structures resists their agency as leaders marisela can you tell us a little bit about that and just kind of what you've seen in in those efforts i know you mentioned it we'll wait for the translator to translate this for marisela are you with us marisela i think she's been muted ah can can someone uh help marisela unmute yourself me yeah now we hear you see maestra de conocimiento por qué porque estar estar en un liderazgo también requiere de conocimiento conocimientos occidentales conocimientos culturales conocimientos tradicionales entonces todo eso es pues lo hemos aprendido y hoy puedo decir que que hemos crecido en el territorio las mujeres hemos desarrollado ese proyectos importantes por ejemplo este hemos dejado una base concreta más allá de un discurso de que el sistema de producción tradicional digamos es una alternativa social cultural ambiental para la resiliencia ante el cambio climático porque nosotros trabajamos en la producción quien es el que enseña eso leamos las mamás trabajando con sus hijos quien es la que está ahí aportando entonces todo eso va a trabajar hemos trabajado y hemos aportado y hemos puestos en práctica de forma tangible y visible en tiempos actuales los conceptos indígenas de uso de la tierra con su conocimiento viable sobre la soberanía alimentaria como mujeres que somos como mujeres transmisora de ese conocimiento mujeres portadoras de ese de ese conocimiento cultural mujeres que estamos día a día con la familia mujeres que que hay obstáculo pero nosotros también tenemos la capacidad para seguir adelante para demostrar que sí se puede hacer las cosas y ahí es donde donde es muy muy este muy como se llama exigente con mis compañeras de que tenemos que crecer como mujeres que tenemos que aprender a liderar en nuestras comunidades porque como mujeres indígenas no es fácil de estar ahorita como estoy yo no es fácil de estar en este medio porque eso no es nuestra nuestra forma de nuestra no pero pero hay que hay que forzarse hay que hacerlo hay que hacerlo por nuestro nuestra gente por nuestro pueblo por nuestro territorio y hay mucha gente detrás de mí hay una gran cantidad de gente que espera de mí espera de las compañeras espera de todos nosotros entonces nosotros tenemos que forzados a aprender a aportar con estos conocimientos importantes en nuestra vida y ahora y una por ejemplo una una inversión que se haga en las mujeres hace cambios profundos en la vida de la familia de la comunidad y del territorio muchas gracias maricela i like the i like the comment it's not easy but you have to do it which is i think at the heart of a lot of what we're trying to do i have a another question for as vando you had mentioned this this this question of languages and loss of traditional language i have someone asking does the does the loss of indigenous languages impair the ability of traditional ecological knowledge to contribute to western science toward a better understanding of the impact of climate change on the vulnerable ecosystems that indigenous people occupy i think essentially just asking you know how how much does that loss of the the indigenous languages and the kind of knowledge that's tied up in those words hurt efforts to pass this on i mean to a wider audience but even including in the own community as vando can you address that one si justamente yo quiero como recalcar nuestro pueblo indígena orani no hemos perdido nuestro idioma solo no hemos la juventud no ha hecho la práctica de la sabiduría de los ancestros de los abuelos entonces es una conexión muy importante que nosotros estamos recopilando la información por ejemplo un ejemplo claro que voy a decir mi pueblo pasa eso no los sabios son como culunas vertebral de un pueblo que han liderado muchos años entonces un abuelo un sabio muere es como perder un libro entonces esto ha sido para nuestra preocupación como muy importante como recopilar de la información y la juventud debe aprender ese conocimiento de un sabio debe como transmitir antes que el un abuelo un sabio muere por la naturaleza por enfermedad pierde el conocimiento pierde nuestro una parte de la historia del mundo wow ahí está como conocimiento de medicina tradicional como como es gobernanzas del territorio como espiritualidad a la cultura del territorio eso ha sido como importante y es no solo para nosotros por pueblos indígenas es como restos del mundo hay muchos pueblos también sucede también esos partes de las la sabiduría también la pérdida de de nuestro idioma de otros indígenas que yo conozco aquí en la amazonía vivieron muchos indígenas somos diferentes cultura lenguaje nuestro idioma es diferente pero algunos van perdiendo también por la influencia del blanco mestizo en su territorio a veces la juventud se va a vivir a la ciudad para estudiar escuela entonces ahí va como la pérdida de la hay como es como se rompe la conexión del mundo indígena de cultura hacia blanco mestizo como a español no es como dejar una parte entonces nosotros hemos llamado a nuestra comunidad es como la cultura el idioma el territorio es el principio ser orani o ser indígena y los tres principios se se va no no funcionan no es equilibrio entonces por ahí va el como más allá que estamos pensando como los principios debemos es un pilar fundamental para un pueblo indígena porque para un pueblo indígena debemos ser un territorio un idioma propio y y la cultura también es es que ha sido muy importante si un indígena no habla su idioma no está como muriendo un indígena si no tiene su hábitat un territorio grande donde vivir un indígena no vive sin territorio sin selva no muere entonces con ese es como es parte de la vida de nosotros no entonces eso eso amigos compañeros it's so interesting what you say you know if to be in the territory is to be warani i think that's a pretty big lesson for the rest of the world too right to you know to be in our natural biodiversity and and the richness of the world is to be human to paraphrase him i think and and that's why it's so important to be protecting this now and and why this kind of knowledge gives us the framework to do that we're just about out of time i'm really sorry we can't take more of your questions i'm sure that our organizers could help get some of those answer to connect you up with people to find out but we really appreciate you taking the time to listen and put those in and i feel really privileged to have listened to such a smart and passionate people for the last hour and a half thank you for that and thanks to our hosts the ford foundation the land portal foundation the tenure facility and my own thompson roger's foundation i'm i'm you know i wish we could have answered more questions but i hope it was uh you know enjoyable and thought-provoking i i certainly found it that as a reminder a recording of this session is going to be available in a few days it might be a useful resource in your own ongoing work or to listen back on or share with others and please do look out for the next one in this land dialogue webinar series there's one a month and i'm sure that you'll be people be in contact through email social media or other means so keep your eyes open and thank you so much for joining us today i know it's always a busy time and and we appreciate an hour and a half out of your day thank you