For Indigenous Youth, biodiversity is the variety and source of life, spirituality and cosmogony, providing the conditions for productive, cultural, symbolic and territorial development. Biodiversity is linked to co-responsibility for conservation and continuity as peoples, and is interwoven in the millennial life of indigenous cultures.

 

Indigenous youth are the hinge of transitions between childhood and infancy (emerging generation) and the elderly (previous generation), so their responsibility in respecting Mother Earth and caring for biological and cultural diversity is very important. Indigenous youth are developing their capacities to summarize both diversities, transmit knowledge through intergenerational dialogues and, above all, project the future.

 

In relation to conservation, Indigenous Youth consider themselves heirs of the territories protected by the elders. For this reason, they emphasize the recognition of the ownership and governance of the territories of the Indigenous Peoples. Regarding traditional knowledge, as Indigenous Youth, they have a constant concern to guarantee traditional systems and the law that governs the transmission of knowledge. For all these reasons, the full and effective participation of Indigenous Youth in advocacy spaces such as the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is fundamental.

 

The upcoming meeting of the Conference of the Parties is the most important forum for discussion and negotiation of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. During this meeting, countries are expected to discuss aspects of the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.