This piece comes to us from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Views and opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The WNET Group.
Fisherwoman in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Photo credit: Elodie Van Lierde ©WCS.
“Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now” is the theme of this year’s International Human Rights Day. The focus is on the immediacy of human rights in our daily lives and their centrality to our collective future. They are also a central feature of conservation to protect the inherent dignity of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who frequently play an outsized role in safeguarding our planet’s ecosystems.
Sadly, human rights remain ignored by some governments and corporations and insufficiently embedded in global compacts on climate and biodiversity. Moreover, the disconnect between rhetoric and reality keeps human rights from being realized at the national and local levels.
In order to secure our collective future we require three key shifts, grounded in human rights, to address the interdependent crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and health (the risk we face in failing to acknowledge the “One Health” interlinkages between the health of people, animals, and nature).
Delegates react to the adoption of an agreement to create a permanent body for decision making based on traditional knowledge at CoP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Photo credit: ©WCS.
The first is a global realignment that builds upon trust between different stakeholders and rights holders. The second is a financing shift that moves beyond mere recognition of deep inequities, or a finite view of resources, to one of shared prosperity. And the third is a shift where more governments and corporations recognize that human rights are not just legal obligations but a central part of nature-positive solutions.
We have emerged from two major global conferences this year intended to address our dire state of affairs on biodiversity, climate, and planetary health. The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CoP16) was held in Colombia with some promise. CoP16 delegates heard a clarion call from a coalition of actors to change the relationship between humans and nature.
Make Peace with Nature: A Call for Life is a powerful declaration calling for sustainability to be accompanied by social and environmental justice, inclusive and informed environmental governance, and laws and public policies that are at peace with nature. Government delegates to CoP16 achieved an unprecedented outcome that includes Indigenous Peoples in a permanent body for decision making on traditional knowledge, while responding to calls for greater linkages between biodiversity, climate and health.
Artisanal fishers cross an estuary in the Sipacate-Naranjo conservation area, Guatemala. Photo credit: Sergio Izquierdo ©WCS.
On the other hand, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (CoP29) in Azerbaijan was a failure in many ways. The outcomes failed to recognize the link between the biodiversity, climate and health agendas. Over 1700 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to the conference and no specific progress was made on how to curb the fossil fuel emissions that have a disproportionate impact on our climate and those who contribute least to the carbon footprint. The target of $300 billion in finance to developing countries for climate action is drastically inadequate.
These mixed outcomes from the two UN conferences signal the importance of the first key shift that we need with significant urgency—to build greater alignment between Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, local communities, funders, academics, and conservation organizations.
The alignment would push for a recalibration of how we relate to nature and the solutions we propose or governments adopt. But we cannot move forward without trust and a shared vision grounded in human rights that encapsulates Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination. This trust-based alignment requires us to actively embrace a human right to culture that leads to incorporation of different knowledge systems in the design and administration of conservation and nature governance.
Alignment on agendas can be further challenged when the lands and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities are under threat from outside actors. Securing the right to land—including territorial access, control, and ownership over natural resources—is both a building block of trust and a climate solution. Present and future Indigenous protected and conserved areas of high ecological integrity can safeguard against the interdependent crises we face.
Sheep and goat herder with her livestock guardian dog on the outskirts of the Laguna Blanca National Park, Neuquén, Argentina. Photo credit: ©Gregorio Ibañez.
The second key shift is for us to come together on key financing initiatives that are collaborative, coordinated, and cut beyond narrow interests with an understanding that financing is not a zero-sum game but one of shared prosperity.
There are different ways to generate finance to address inequalities and inequities. However, top-down solutions from governments combined with short-term interests frequently impinge upon the direction or allocation of resources. Advocates of multilateral financing reform have recommended cultural solutions that are practical and send a signal to other sectors of finance as well. The human right to participation in decision-making can counter the top-down approach and transform inequities.
The third major shift is to understand that human rights can be nature-positive solutions. When we spend seven years in an extensive free, prior, and informed consent process involving 9,000 Indigenous Peoples from more than 100 communities in Papua New Guinea to create two Marine Protected Areas, it is a win-win for all—Indigenous Peoples, national government, conservationists, private actors, and nature. But such solutions are not commonplace and are often a struggle to scale up, especially in the area of land rights.
We absolutely can and should do more by helping more governments and corporations shift their thinking such that human rights are deeply embedded in nature positive solutions to secure our future. It must be with an urgency that discards self-interested short-term goals and moves towards long-term shared prosperity.
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