It is urgent to recognize the contribution of indigenous knowledge to water governance and management

The traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples cover about one-quarter of land on Earth, equivalent to an estimated 38 million km². This land includes many important headwaters, water towers, wetlands and other inland and coastal waters. Some of this land is arid or semi-arid.

Indigenous Peoples have been managing and governing water since time immemorial. Indigenous knowledge has contributed to the development of water management practices that are sustainable and based on the principles of stewardship, conservation and equity. Considerable research and advocacy have been done on indigenous knowledge systems of water.

Despite this, much of the traditional and contemporary indigenous ways of living with water remain undocumented or little-known to decision-makers and scientists, or do not receive adequate attention given their potential to inspire solutions to present-day and future challenges.

The Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will address the event, highlighting the role, cultural values and experience of Indigenous Peoples in ensuring water sustainability.

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell, will address the critically important role that Indigenous Peoples play in monitoring the impact of climate change, as well as in adaptation and in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which calls for the mobilization of indigenous knowledge.

Drawing on the Dushanbe Declaration adopted last year at a conference which prepared much of the groundwork for the United Nations’ Water Conference this month, the side event will demonstrate how Indigenous Peoples’ engagement in water policy helps respond to climate change and sustain biodiversity. This will be important for the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in December 2022 and the Paris Agreement, among other global agreements.

Through a series of diverse regional case studies, this side event will outline current practices and sketch a roadmap for new approaches and new commitments to ensure an inclusive, rights-based and multiple-evidence approach to water management and governance. The event will pay special attention to the ways in which indigenous knowledge sustains biodiversity and food systems, while addressing climate change.

Increasingly, the United Nations system is recognizing and promoting the inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge of the biosphere to inform science and policy-making. This paradigm shift has yet to be fully embraced by the water sector. The Mid-Term Review of the Water Action Decade being undertaken by participants in the United Nations 2023 Water Conference should thus, provide a turning point by embracing new ways of working and new partnerships to help the world reach its water-related goals by 2030.

This side event is being organized by UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme, in cooperation with regional networks of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Member States of Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chile and Mexico, as well as as the Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y El Caribe, Pawanka Fund, Stockholm International Water Institute and a broad coalition of United Nations agencies: the United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation, the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Environment Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Programme, World Health Organisation and International Labour Organization.

Nigel Crawhall, Chief of UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme; Khalissa Ikhlef, LINKS programme