Afro-descendant Leaders' Demands For COP16: Recognize Land Rights, Key To Conserving Biodiversity In Latin America

For the first time, ahead of COP16, 25+ Afro-descendant organizations announce recommendations to prioritize land rights of communities contributing to conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean

A declaration released at a press briefing highlights significant overlap between lands claimed by Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean and biodiversity hotspots; call for the inclusion of the term Afro-descendants in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Bogotá, Colombia, June 14 – At a press briefing held on Friday, June 14, the Coalition of Territorial and Environmental Rights for Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbeans, in alliance with Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Proceso De Comunidades Negras (PCN), Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ), and various Afro-descendant organizations released a series of evidence-based recommendations that will call on organizers of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference to include full respect for the rights and contributions of Afro-descendant communities at the global event that will open on October 21 in Cali, Colombia.

The demands are as follows:

We demand the inclusion of the term Afrodescendants in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), among other international instruments, mechanisms, bodies and protocols.

We request the inclusion of the full and objective participation of Afro-descendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in the institutional arrangement for the new program of work of the 8J group and related provisions, incorporating an element number 9 related to Afro-descendant peoples' issues.

We demand to constitute ourselves as CAUCUS of Afrodescendant Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

We demand compliance with the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), which proposes concrete measures to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance throughout the world.

We urge States, donors and/or cooperating partners to develop flexible mechanisms for direct funding to Afro-descendant Peoples in their territories within existing funds.

We demand the right to historical reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement that occurred in the Americas, expressed as a set of special measures of environmental and ethno-racial justice.

We demand to generate processes of economic sustainability for women of Afro-descendant peoples, their families and communities, with direct funding for access to land, empowerment, security and the reduction/elimination of multiple forms of violence.

We demand that our Afro-descendant children, adolescents and youth enjoy ancestral/traditional territories free of violence and all types of contamination; that they have access to quality and relevant education, recreation, health, and sports, guaranteeing the transmission of ancestral knowledge, uses and customs.

We urge states and organizations to build efficient mechanisms for the implementation of the collective and individual rights of Afro-descendant peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

We demand special mechanisms for the protection, management of Afro-descendant ancestral/traditional territories, conservation, adaptation and mitigation to climate change, disaster risk, biodiversity conservation, protection of ancestral knowledge and preservation of water sources; based on our worldview.

We demand the recognition of Afro-descendant ancestral/traditional territories, titled or not, as efficient mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, adaptation and mitigation to climate change, therefore, it is necessary to guarantee access, use, enjoyment, titling, sanitation and expansion of these territories.

We demand that governments guarantee special mechanisms for the protection and access to individual and collective justice for Afro-descendant territorial and environmental defenders and leaders as integral elements of their action plans to ensure biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

We demand that the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) focus on local governments that support and promote the strengthening and implementation of national, university and public health systems, ensuring health policies for the equity of people of African descent in access to health services and the preservation of knowledge and practices of ancestral and traditional medicine of the peoples of African descent, from a perspective of health sovereignty and decolonization of health.

We demand that the States carry out national evaluations on the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent of the United Nations, especially in relation to territories, biodiversity and climate change.

We demand that these recommendations be accepted and included in the draft declarations on the rights of Afro-descendant Peoples, communities and persons of African descent that are being discussed in the United Nations and Inter-American systems, promoting participation in these processes and the right to prior consultation in accordance with ILO Convention 169.

QUOTES

“In none of the international instruments of the COP16 UN Biodiversity Conference 2024 or the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference are the Afro-descendant People included. Neither the term local communities nor Indigenous Peoples identifies or includes us, that is why we have set ourselves the task with the Ministry of Environment of Colombia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that the category of Afro-descendant Peoples is inserted in the COP16. We ask Brazil to accompany Colombia in this petition, which is an enormous tool to establish a plan to safeguard and protect the territories, rights and knowledge of the Afrodescendant Peoples”, says Francia Marquez, Colombian vice-president.

"There should be greater involvement of Afro-descendants Peoples in the climate change discussions. The lack of systematic and comprehensive data on ancestral lands [of Afro-descendant Peoples] renders invisible their important contributions to biodiversity protection and their efforts to address the impacts of climate change. These recommendations are a fundamental step in Afro-descendant Peoples being central in climate change talks," says José Luis Rengifo, PCN director and spokesperson of the Coalition of Territorial and Environmental Rights for Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbeans.

“There are more than 1,271 protected areas within or adjacent to the territories of Afro-descendant Peoples, 77% of which have reduced natural transformation, which demonstrates the enormous contribution of these communities in protecting areas of high ecosystem value. Brazil is a significant country, as 67% of these areas are located in certified municipalities with the presence of Quilombola Peoples without collective title,” says Omaira Bolaños, Latin American Program Director at RRI.

“We know that the law is only an instrument, land titling is only a step, which does not cover all the vulnerabilities of the communities. Land regulation must include a policy framework that focuses on reducing these vulnerabilities", says Ronaldo dos Santos of Brazil's Ministry of Racial Equality.

“It is critical that in these spaces the category of "local communities" is used to include the Afro-descendant Peoples that have a territoriality and different forms of organization," says José Absalón Suarez of PCN.

“Apologies followed by a full stop is not enough. We need apologies followed by a comma and see what comes next, what are the measures that are going to be taken," says Barbara Reynolds, from the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

BACKGROUND

Unprecedented in their ambition and geographic breadth, the recommendations seek to influence the outcomes of COP16, with the goal of strengthening the territorial rights of Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean. Leaders of Afro-descendant movements from across the region argue that territorial rights are key to fulfilling the goal of conserving the most biodiverse region of the planet and central to the reparations owed the 134 million Afro-descendant peoples in the region.

The press briefing brought an end to an end an international conference that took place in Bogotá between June 11-14, where academic experts and civil society allies met with Afro-descendant political leaders and activists representing Afro-descendant peoples from Latin American and Caribbean countries are meeting, the culmination of a decades-long struggle to be recognized as rights holders, much as Indigenous Peoples are.

The briefing followed a panel opened by Francia Marquez, Vice President of Colombia, where Afro-descendant leaders from Brazil and Colombia challenges an audience of representatives of governments, conservation groups and donors to act on the recommendations and on the evidence of the significant conservation role of Afro-descendant communities.

Known as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the global agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet, was finalized at COP15 in Montreal. Decisions about how to implement the agreement will be made at COP16 in Calí in November, potentially affecting the lives, livelihoods and territories of Afro-descendant and other local communities worldwide.

Currently, neither national nor international legal frameworks fully guarantee the territorial rights of Afro-descendant communities. Colombia has outperformed all other countries in the region in the titling of the lands of Afro-descendant communities, although significant obstacles remain, as a UN human rights delegation noted about Colombia after a country visit last month.

The recommendations come as the UN closes in on the end of the International Decade for People of African Descent. Proclaimed by the General Assembly to begin in 2014, its theme was meant to be ”recognition, justice and development” for people of African descent.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently recognized the enormous contributions of Afro-descendant peoples in every area of human endeavor, while adding, “At the same time, we acknowledge the pervasive discrimination faced by people of African descent around the world, and the many obstacles they face to realizing their full human rights.” The lack of progress led the UN Human Rights Council to propose that the UN proclaim a second International Decade for People of African Descent, starting next year.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Recommendations - Coalition of Territorial and Environmental Rights for Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbeans - ENGLISH

Recommendations - Coalition of Territorial and Environmental Rights for Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbeans - SPANISH

Recommendations - Coalition of Territorial and Environmental Rights for Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbeans - PORTUGUESE

Open access cartographic viewer of the Afro-descendance territoriality in the region

Brochure: Afrodescendant territoriality in Latin America and the Caribbean and the recognition of their tenure rights

Report: Afro-descendant Peoples’ Territories in Biodiversity Hotspots across Latin America and the Caribbean: Barriers to Inclusion in Conservation policies

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