Delegates agree to establish Indigenous subsidiary body at COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia

CALI, Colombia (AP) — Delegates came to an agreement late Friday at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future talks and decisions on nature conservation.

The COP16 summit hosted in Cali, Colombia, was a follow-up to the historic 2022 accord in Montreal, which includes 23 measures to save Earth’s plant and animal life, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.

A measure to recognize the importance of the role of people of African descent in the protection of nature was also adopted Friday.

Negotiators struggled to find common ground on some key issues in the final week, but were able to come to a consensus after negotiating late into Friday. Global Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears over the historic decision.

The decision recognizes and protects the traditional knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and local communities for the benefit of global and national biodiversity management, said Sushil Raj, Executive Director of the Rights and Communities Global Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“It strengthens representation, coordination, inclusive decision making, and creates a space for dialogue with parties to the COP,” Raj told The Associated Press. “It promotes support for Indigenous and traditional territorial biodiversity management and furthers international human rights standards referenced in the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

“With this decision, the value of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities is recognized, and a 26-year-old historical debt in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is settled,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president, posted on social media platform X shortly after the announcement.