Colombia | Indigenous people prepare for COP16 meeting
Valeria Cardona from Cali, Colombia, bring us the details for the upcoming COP16 conference, to be held at the end of September in the Colombian town. teleSUR
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00:00Indigenous people around the world are preparing for COP16, a meeting that seeks to organize
00:07the agenda of the different governments and indigenous peoples within the COP16 Biodiversity
00:12Conference to be held at the end of next month in Cali, Colombia.
00:16Our colleague Valeria Cardona has the details.
00:21More than 150 representatives of governments and indigenous peoples from seven regions
00:26around the world gather at the Botanical Garden in Bogotá for the Global Summit of
00:31Traditional Knowledge Related to the World's Biodiversity, an event that runs from August
00:3626 to 29, 2024.
00:41Today we are precisely at the Biodiversity Summit within the framework of traditional
00:46knowledge and here we will develop an agenda that seems fundamental to us.
00:52And that is how we describe ourselves as indigenous peoples of the world to arrive
00:57with a clear message to the world, from our knowledge, from our ancestry, but especially
01:03from our cultural practices.
01:10During these four days, indigenous representatives from around the world will seek to create
01:14a joint agenda that they will present during the days of the COP16 in the city of Cali,
01:19which will take place during the last days of September and the beginning of the month
01:23of October under two main objectives.
01:30The purpose of this meeting, or this World Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity,
01:36is to ratify the demand for the recognition of the know-how of indigenous peoples and
01:41its contribution to humanity, which contributes to the sustainability of biodiversity.
01:47Ambassadors present here recognize that 80% of the world's biodiversity is managed
01:53by indigenous governments, based on their knowledge systems, on their regulatory systems,
01:59on their governance systems.
02:01So this has to be an objective.
02:07The second objective, according to the General Council of the National Organization of Indigenous
02:12Peoples of Colombia, has to do with the discussion of an article related to biodiversity, which
02:17requires the creation of a permanent committee to follow up and implement the knowledge systems
02:22of the indigenous peoples.
02:26Our elders from the different indigenous peoples have been teaching us through dancing, singing,
02:32through music.
02:33They have been transmitting this knowledge to learn to love, to care, to defend, and
02:38especially all the indigenous peoples of the planet have taught us to take care of
02:42nature.
02:43And this is important today, and I believe that COP 16 should allow, should assume this
02:49as a teaching method not only for the indigenous peoples, but for all humanity, because we
02:54need it.
02:57Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhammad says that indigenous peoples are key players
03:02in the discussion of biodiversity in the world, and seek to make their knowledge available,
03:07to be recognized as stakeholders who govern and exercise sovereignty over biodiversity
03:13issues in the world, and to have an impact on decisions on this issue at the global level.
03:19Valeria Cardona, Telesur, Bogotá, Colombia.