An international conference organized by UNESCO

18-20 October 2017, UNESCO, Paris

Ahead of the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23), the UNESCO Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme (LINKS) is inviting key partners and institutions to share their own successes and lessons learned in mobilizing local and indigenous knowledge for climate change. The conference seeks to facilitate transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder knowledge platforms and climate change observing systems in key climate-vulnerable regions and create synergies with existing initiatives.

The outcomes of this meeting will feed into LINKS priority activities within the framework of the programme’s strategy on climate change and indigenous knowledge, and provide support to the UNFCCC platform discussions. The draft agenda is available here.

The LINKS programme is also simultaneously organizing an exhibition on ‘Local Knowledge, Global Goals’ supported by the Japanese Funds-In-Trust for UNESCO (JFIT) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). This exhibition aims to reflect indigenous and local knowledge systems, and their interactions with science and policy, today and in the future.

As the world changes increasingly rapidly, we explore the ways that indigenous and local knowledge contribute to understanding, mitigating and adapting to climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Further details are available on the exhibition website.

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is conducting assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These regional assessments are to be based on, in addition to scientific knowledge, the knowledge, practices, observations and understandings of indigenous peoples and local communities.

• More information

UNESCO’s Climate Frontlines initiative is launching a new project for pastoral/herding communities in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The project aims at understanding pastoral peoples’ own knowledge of weather and climate, their forecasting skills, and their observations of environmental change.

UNESCO is looking for individuals who will work with their communities to achieve the following project’s goals:

• to build dialogue between community members and climate scientists,
• to strengthen local capacities to engage with national policy-makers on climate change adaptation.

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Sophisticated knowledge of the natural world is not confined to science. Societies from all parts of the world possess rich sets of experience, understanding and explanation. Local and indigenous knowledge refers to the understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings. For rural and indigenous peoples, local knowledge informs decision-making about fundamental aspects of day-to-day life.

This knowledge is integral to a cultural complex that also encompasses language, systems of classification, resource use practices, social interactions, ritual and spirituality. These unique ways of knowing are important facets of the world’s cultural diversity, and provide a foundation for locally-appropriate sustainable development.

The Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme is a UNESCO interdisciplinary initiative that brings together expertise from the Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, Communication & Information and Education.

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Update: Deadline for submission of nominations extended to 15 April 2013 

On or before the 28 March 2013, nominations are welcome for relevant experts and stakeholders to attend an international workshop organized in the framework of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The primary objective of this workshop is to identify procedures and approaches for building synergies between indigenous & local knowledge and science. Organized on behalf of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel by UNESCO, UNU and the Ministry of Environment of Japan, this workshop will be held from 9 to 11 June 2013 in Tokyo (in English only).

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has been recently created by governments from around the globe in order to reinforce dialogue between policy-makers and the scientific community. This global mechanism is designed to gather, analyze and synthesize information that will inform decision-making on countering biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services. The knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities makes a crucial contribution, alongside science, to understanding the status and trends with respect to biodiversity and ecosystem services. For this reason, the IPBES functions, operating principles and work programme explicitly recognize and respect ‘the contribution of indigenous and local knowledge to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems’ (UNEP/IPBES.MI/2/9 Appendix 1, para. 2 (d)).

The Plenary of IPBES at its first session decided to ‘invite members, observers and other stakeholders to submit nominations to the secretariat for participation in the multidisciplinary and regionally balanced expert workshop (on indigenous and local knowledge) for consideration by the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel’.

You are hereby requested to submit such nominations on or before 28 March 2013. To download the nomination form and access additional information, please refer to the interactive Table of IPBES intersessional activities that is available here: http://www.ipbes.net/plenary/intersessional.html

For those who may have difficulty accessing the IPBES site, the IPBES nomination form for the Indigenous and Local Knowledge Workshop is also available here (in a Word document or as a PDF). The completed forms, accompanied by the CV of the nominee, are to be submitted before the deadline to ipbes.unep(at)unep.org

"We, the Indigenous Peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors"

In Rio in 1992, Indigenous Peoples voiced their commitment to a sustainable future rooted in the knowledge and worldviews of their Elders. As part of the contribution to Rio+20, a plenary thematic session on Indigenous Knowledge was held at the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development on 13 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. Building upon the outcomes of the Planet Under Pressure session on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Futures (London, 28 March 2012), this session of the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development panel considered, among others, how global environmental governance has been and continues to be transformed by an expanding engagement amongst local and indigenous knowledge holders, the scientific community and decision-makers.

UNESCO is embarking on a process to elaborate a house-wide policy on engaging with Indigenous Peoples. A General Conference Side Event launched this process on the 10th November. The event featured the highest-level indigenous spokespersons from the three foremost UN institutions with respect to Indigenous Peoples: Mr James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Ms Myrna Cunningham, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and Mr. Vital Bambanze, Chair, UN Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples.

A workshop in Ndjamena, Chad, will take place from 7-9 November 2011 to investigate ways to anchor climate change adaptation policy within both science and traditional knowledge. The workshop will bring together African pastoralists and climate service providers to discuss how traditional rural knowledge systems and adaptation strategies can interact with meteorological science in order to produce information for establishing climate change adaptation policies as well as for providing more locally accurate weather forecasts.

• More information
• Climate Frontlines website

Indigenous peoples hold some of the keys to tackling global challenges. As we strive to foster sustainable and equitable development, it is vital we listen to the voices of indigenous peoples and that we learn from their knowledge. UNESCO's Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme seeks global recognition of the importance of indigenous knowledge for understanding the impacts of climate change and for developing ways to adapt at the community level.

• Message from Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO 
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La selva tropical de America Central en la frontera entre Nicaragua y Honduras ha sido el hogar de las tribus Nayangna y Miskito por siglos. En el correr de su existencia basada en la agricultura de quema, la pesca y la caza, han logrado formar un sistema ecológico y lo han protegido de su destrucción.