Valeria Cardona from Cali, Colombia, bring us the details for the upcoming COP16 conference, to be held at the end of September in the Colombian town. teleSUR
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00:00Indigenous people around the world are preparing for COP16, a meeting that seeks to organize
00:07the agenda of the different governments and indigenous peoples within the COP16 Biodiversity
00:12Conference to be held at the end of next month in Cali, Colombia.
00:16Our colleague Valeria Cardona has the details.
00:21More than 150 representatives of governments and indigenous peoples from seven regions
00:26around the world gather at the Botanical Garden in Bogotá for the Global Summit of
00:31Traditional Knowledge Related to the World's Biodiversity, an event that runs from August
00:3626 to 29, 2024.
00:41Today we are precisely at the Biodiversity Summit within the framework of traditional
00:46knowledge and here we will develop an agenda that seems fundamental to us.
00:52And that is how we describe ourselves as indigenous peoples of the world to arrive
00:57with a clear message to the world, from our knowledge, from our ancestry, but especially
01:03from our cultural practices.
01:10During these four days, indigenous representatives from around the world will seek to create
01:14a joint agenda that they will present during the days of the COP16 in the city of Cali,
01:19which will take place during the last days of September and the beginning of the month
01:23of October under two main objectives.
01:30The purpose of this meeting, or this World Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity,
01:36is to ratify the demand for the recognition of the know-how of indigenous peoples and
01:41its contribution to humanity, which contributes to the sustainability of biodiversity.
01:47Ambassadors present here recognize that 80% of the world's biodiversity is managed
01:53by indigenous governments, based on their knowledge systems, on their regulatory systems,
01:59on their governance systems.
02:01So this has to be an objective.
02:07The second objective, according to the General Council of the National Organization of Indigenous
02:12Peoples of Colombia, has to do with the discussion of an article related to biodiversity, which
02:17requires the creation of a permanent committee to follow up and implement the knowledge systems
02:22of the indigenous peoples.
02:26Our elders from the different indigenous peoples have been teaching us through dancing, singing,
02:32through music.
02:33They have been transmitting this knowledge to learn to love, to care, to defend, and
02:38especially all the indigenous peoples of the planet have taught us to take care of
02:42nature.
02:43And this is important today, and I believe that COP 16 should allow, should assume this
02:49as a teaching method not only for the indigenous peoples, but for all humanity, because we
02:54need it.
02:57Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhammad says that indigenous peoples are key players
03:02in the discussion of biodiversity in the world, and seek to make their knowledge available,
03:07to be recognized as stakeholders who govern and exercise sovereignty over biodiversity
03:13issues in the world, and to have an impact on decisions on this issue at the global level.
03:19Valeria Cardona, Telesur, Bogotá, Colombia.