We’re making this letter public so that everybody can perceive that the struggle towards biodiversity loss can’t be achieved on the expense of nature’s finest guardians. The aim of 30% protected areas is a “Huge Inexperienced Lie”. It’s going to destroy thousands and thousands of lives, however is not going to save our planet. Discover right here a press release that specifies our opposition to this, signed by greater than 200 environmental and human rights organizations, consultants and lecturers.
20 March 2021
Expensive Prime Minister,
Re: The 30% protected areas goal – a catastrophe for tribal and Indigenous peoples and biodiversity
Survival Worldwide, the worldwide motion for tribal peoples, is extraordinarily involved by the aim, supported by you and your authorities, of remodeling 30% of the planet into “protected areas” by 2030.
The 30% goal is being erroneously introduced as an answer to decreasing biodiversity loss and mitigating local weather change. The creation of protected areas follows the colonial mannequin of “fortressconservation” and results in critical human rights violations towards Indigenous and native peoples. These embody land grabbing, evictions, torture and killings by the hands of park guards, supported by conservation organisations like WWF and WCS.
The 30% plan would result in the most important land seize in historical past – violating the rights of over 300 million individuals. These will embody probably the most weak communities on the planet, who’ve contributed least to the local weather disaster. It is not going to shield biodiversity or mitigate local weather change. Proof exhibits that when tribal and Indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral territories are assured, they’re the most effective guardians of nature, but the present plan doesn’t present any assure for the rights of tribal and Indigenous peoples or for native communities. Their territorial rights and their rights to selfdetermination and to free, prior and knowledgeable consent, that are enshrined in worldwide legislation, should be assured and revered.
By co-chairing the Excessive Ambition Coalition for Nature and Peoples, which is pushing the 30% goal; and by internet hosting the G7 and COP26 summits this yr, the UK is in a uniquely robust place to affect the controversy. Subsequently, we name on you to desert help for the colonial and racist mannequin of fortress conservation and we urge you to make use of your management to make sure that the rights of tribal and Indigenous peoples are revered, together with robust, enforceable ensures.
Indigenous peoples are the most effective conservationists and guaranteeing their rights should be the primary instrument for safeguarding biodiversity. For tribal peoples, for nature, for all humanity.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Pearce
Director
Survival Worldwide
