Bolivia: Landmark Global Biodiversity Agreement Enshrines Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Providing Hope for Bolivia’s Guarani

Jan 11, 2023 | Juana Vera-Delgado
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After more than four years of negotiations, on Dec.19, 2022, nearly 200 nations adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—a binding agreement to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s biodiversity within 2030. The agreement represents a significant step forward towards rights-based, gender just and socially equitable biodiversity conservation.

The agreed text not only recognizes Indigenous territories as an important, autonomous contribution to area-based conservation, but it also includes other targets—like calling on governments to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples, local communities and women in biodiversity conservation.

The framework admittedly isn’t perfect. It does not wholly incorporate Indigenous peoples’ demand for their lands and territories to be fully recognized as a category of conserved area. But it’s still decisive for the recognition and respect of collective, environmental, cultural and gender rights of Indigenous peoples—women, in particular.