THE WORLD’S FIRST MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS on decolonising conservation, ‘Our Land, Our Nature’, will take place in Marseille, France, on 2 September, 2021.
At this congress, indigenous representatives and speakers from around 18 countries will share evidence and first-hand testimonies of conservation atrocities and land theft, and will present a model for an alternative conservation.
‘Our Land, Our Nature’, supported by Minority Rights Group, Rainforest Foundation UK, and Survival International among others, will highlight the global opposition to attempts by governments, industry and big conservation NGOs to turn 30 per cent of the globe into ‘Protected Areas’ (’30×30′). It will also challenge the idea of “Nature-Based Solutions” (NBS) which put a price on the value of nature and offer a false solution to combating climate change.
Caroline Pearce, Executive Director of Survival International, said: “The 30×30 and NBS narratives are a #BigGreenLie. Protected Areas do not provide a solution to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss or pandemics, and have already stripped millions of people of their sustainable livelihoods, lands and lives. The 30×30 project is likely to harm hundreds of millions more people, including indigenous peoples whose voices are silenced in the conservation industry.”
‘Our Land, Our Nature’ will break this silence and give a platform (in person or via video link) to local leaders, indigenous activists and other academics and scientists from every continent. It will challenge the World Conservation Congress to abandon 30×30 and NBS in favour of approaches that put people and social justice at the centre of conservation.
‘Our land, Our Nature’ will be streamed worldwide. It will be opened by Fiore Longo, head of Survival’s conservation campaign, who says: “The best guardians of the natural world are indigenous peoples, whose territories now contain some 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. But they are the ones kicked off these lands by an increasingly militarised conservation industry, which partners with corporate interests who are sacking the Earth for profit. The 30 per cent plan represents the biggest land grab in history, it is fundamentally colonialist and racist, and it must be stopped.”
* More information here.
* Source: Survival International