Indigenous People Gain Voice at Biodiversity Conference, Push to Conserve Amazon

Indigenous voices on the environment are finally being heard as Marseille hosts a global biodiversity summit, with a call to protect 80 percent of the Amazon, as well as a “counter conference” highlighting the conservation movement’s historic violation of people’s rights.

For the first time in its seven-decade history, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is including Indigenous peoples as full voting members in their own right, rather than under the NGO category. Dozens of Indigenous meetings are happening at the summit — which occurs every four years — with representatives from 23 organizations.

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