The vital role the Indigenous Peoples play in addressing the climate, ecological and biodiversity crises that has been increasingly recognized on the global stage. Policy discussion at the recent Conferences of the Parties (COPs) on climate and biodiversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD) and its Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on Drought, Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, acknowledged that Indigenous People's territorial management, food knowledge and governance systems ar vital to climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration and the future of sustainable food systems. 

This high-level side event, will delve in the potentialities of the Indigenous Peoples' biocentric restoration approach, co-developed by Indigenous People's researchers and the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit, to present an alternative way to restore degraded lands that emanate from Indigenous Peoples' worldviews and knowledge. Led by Indigenous Peoples themselves, biocentric restoration centers Indigenous People' knowledge and cosmogonies and allows the community to restore their territories in ways that rare rooted in ancestral beliefs, knowledge, and practices. 

The session will elaborate on the design and launch of different biocentric restoration plans are underway, aligned with the targets of the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in particular target 2, target 3, target 22, and target 23, and the pillars of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Learn more about this CBD COP 16 side event.

*Banner image by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations