Indigenous Day celebrates ‘guardians of the environment’

Indigenous Peoples represent around six per cent of the world’s population, and their knowledge and traditions are believed to help solve many of today’s challenges in the areas of climate action and biodiversity.

The focus of the International Day this year is on the approximately 200 groups of Indigenous Peoples currently living in voluntary isolation in remote forests, and initial contact with them. These communities live detached from the rest of the world, surviving by hunting and gathering, fully depending on their ecological environment.

‘Their survival is our survival’

“Their stewardship signifies an outsized contribution to our global community”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the Day.

As keepers of knowledge that help safeguard some of the most biodiverse areas of our planet, and as guardians of the environment, “their survival is our survival”, he said.

Spread across 90 nations, an estimated 476 million Indigenous individuals inhabit our world. These diverse communities encompass an incredible array of 5,000 cultures and are the primary speakers of the majority of the world’s 7,000 languages, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Challenges and threats

But these “communities also face serious challenges that threaten their very existence, being often victims of threats and violence”, Mr. Guterres highlighted.

“Ancestral homelands and natural resources that they depend on for survival are coming under siege”, he continued, with extractive and productive sectors, like mining, agriculture and transport having accelerated deforestation and land degradation.

Darío Mejía Montalvo, an Indigenous leader from Colombia, upheld Indigenous Peoples’ role as guardians of the environment.

“Indigenous Peoples around the world have ensured the permanence in their territories and the care of biological diversity because they have knowledge systems, a direct relationship with the territory,” said Mr. Mejía Montalvo, who is a member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the new panel on Critical Minerals.

“Any impact that happens to biodiversity, to the territories of indigenous peoples, not only affects their rights and their integrity, but also the rest of humanity”, he stressed.

In an interview with UN News, Mr. Mejía Montalvo warned of the need to balance the relationship between investment groups and Indigenous Peoples, and between the value given to capital and the value given to territory and biodiversity.

The panel on Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition was established last April by the UN Secretary-General with the goal of developing common principles to guide extractive industries to ensure that the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is fair, sustainable and beneficial for all countries.

Return to ‘collective work and spirituality’

Mr. Mejía Montalvo also addressed current developments that impact Indigenous Peoples, including artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology.

“AI is not going to save us from natural disasters due to climate change. It is necessary to return to the origin, value the spirituality and collective work of Indigenous Peoples”, said the leader of the Zenú Indigenous community in northern Colombia.

In a message to future generations, Mr. Mejía Montalvo recalled that this is not the first time that Indigenous Peoples have faced adversity and difficult challenges.

“The collective work and spirituality are the main contribution” for humanity and “cannot be replaced”, he said.

Right to protection

This year’s theme for the International Day also reminds us of Indigenous Peoples’ right to protect themselves from unwanted contact, which can expose them to infectious diseases, forced assimilation, and the disruption of culture, language, and livelihoods.

Marking the Day, Mr. Guterres called for their protection. “Together, let us safeguard their rights to live in peace and dignity”, he concluded.