It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous peoples around the globe comprising approximately 5,000 distinct peoples with unique languages, cultures, institutions and traditions. Over the centuries they have adapted to different environments by establishing livelihoods in close relationship and symbiosis with the environment, developing highly specialized resource management practices and livelihood strategies. Their understanding of natural processes as holistic, and their care in nourishing the earth with whom they have a spiritual connection, has played a key role in the preservation of forests, lakes, rivers and other natural resources that today constitute the remaining pockets of biodiversity.

Despite this richness in knowledge, the lack of respect for their ancestral rights makes indigenous peoples highly vulnerable, while jeopardizing their fundamental knowledge on ecosystem management and preservation, as well as the foundation of their traditional food systems and diets, which have proven to be healthy and sustainable.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, one of the agenda items of the 12th EMRIP, guarantees that indigenous peoples have the right to protect their traditional knowledge and culture as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora (Article 31), and have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources (Article 32). In COP 21 in Paris 2015, indigenous peoples were recognized as holders of some of today’s answers to tomorrow’s problems.

As an international organization with the vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition, FAO is deeply engaged in the discourse around the future of food and food systems. Join us at this event to learn more about indigenous food systems, including in relation to climate change; to discuss the role that indigenous youth have in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly ending hunger and malnutrition; and to engage in dialogue and reflection with relevant actors.

Speakers at this event moderated by Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, include: Ms Anne Nuorgam (keynote speaker), Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Amb. Jillian Dempster (tbc), Permanent Representative of New Zealand to UNOG; Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the Right of Indigenous Peoples; and Mr Yon Fernández-de-Larrinoa, FAO Indigenous Peoples Team Leader.