Joint Declaration of the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network and the Indigenous Youth
Bonn, Germany, May 18, 2008
Thank you, Mr. President.
We, the indigenous women and youth wish to make the following observations on the issues that will be discussed during COP9.
We thank the German government and people for their hospitality and are grateful to the international cooperation agencies for supporting our participation in this Conference.
Mr. Chair,
Climate change is adversely affecting the conservation of our biodiversity and our traditional knowledge causing the loss of our native seeds, medicinal plants, food security and food sovereignty, water scarcity and rising sea levels.
The expansion of protected areas systems in our lands and territories has caused adverse socioeconomic and cultural impacts on our peoples and our traditional management systems, increasing extreme poverty and contradicting the MDG, the Millennium Development Goals. Indigenous women are the keepers and developers of our food. We guarantee food security and we develop our seeds for the benefit of future generations.
Monocrops and the introduction of GMOs are greatly undermining the role of women as keepers and developers of seed and traditional knowledge of food production systems for current and future generations.
Mr. Chair,
We, therefore, recommend the following:
We urge Parties, the private sector and the conservation NGOs to guarantee the conservation of biodiversity by stopping all support of agrofuels, monoculture tree plantations, genetically modifies organisms and extractive industries, including mining and logging that destroy Mother Earth.
We reiterate the urgent need for the Parties to recognize and respect our customary systems for the protection of our traditional knowledge and associated genetic resources.
We urge Parties to implement the Gender Plan and provide human, technical and financial resources and inform you that the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network is eager to contribute to this work.
Bonn, Germany, May 18, 2008
Thank you, Mr. President.
We, the indigenous women and youth wish to make the following observations on the issues that will be discussed during COP9.
We thank the German government and people for their hospitality and are grateful to the international cooperation agencies for supporting our participation in this Conference.
Mr. Chair,
Climate change is adversely affecting the conservation of our biodiversity and our traditional knowledge causing the loss of our native seeds, medicinal plants, food security and food sovereignty, water scarcity and rising sea levels.
The expansion of protected areas systems in our lands and territories has caused adverse socioeconomic and cultural impacts on our peoples and our traditional management systems, increasing extreme poverty and contradicting the MDG, the Millennium Development Goals. Indigenous women are the keepers and developers of our food. We guarantee food security and we develop our seeds for the benefit of future generations.
Monocrops and the introduction of GMOs are greatly undermining the role of women as keepers and developers of seed and traditional knowledge of food production systems for current and future generations.
Mr. Chair,
We, therefore, recommend the following:
We urge Parties, the private sector and the conservation NGOs to guarantee the conservation of biodiversity by stopping all support of agrofuels, monoculture tree plantations, genetically modifies organisms and extractive industries, including mining and logging that destroy Mother Earth.
We reiterate the urgent need for the Parties to recognize and respect our customary systems for the protection of our traditional knowledge and associated genetic resources.
We urge Parties to implement the Gender Plan and provide human, technical and financial resources and inform you that the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network is eager to contribute to this work.
