80% of the richest ecosystems on Earth are inhabited by indigenous peoples. Julie Garnier, co-founder of the NGO Odyssey Conservation Trust, is helping them protect this biodiversity.
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00You cannot conserve biodiversity and wildlife and threatened ecosystems
00:04if you do not consider the health and livelihood of the people who live in there.
00:24They have been there before anybody else. It is their land.
00:27Sadly, because of historical reasons and background,
00:32they have been destituted from their rights to manage their natural resources.
00:37And because of that, we have a situation where actually biodiversity has been degraded.
00:44Because in many areas where you still have local and indigenous people,
00:49biodiversity is still there because they know how to use it.
00:51They know how to respect it.
00:57In Mozambique, we realized that local fishermen actually knew exactly
01:10where the fish were the most abundant.
01:12They used to call it the fish bank.
01:15And the elders knew exactly that this area in the reef was the most productive.
01:21And this was confirmed later on by marine biologists that came from other places.
01:26It's now become a hot hope spot for biodiversity,
01:30simply because we helped the communities to regain the rights to manage their coral reefs.
01:45So these communities are actually the poorest of the poor.
01:48And how can you help them to protect their biodiversity and natural resources
01:54when actually their struggle is just to feed the children every night,
01:58just to protect the crops against elephants,
02:01or protect their families against predators?
02:05So you have to address these risks which are coming from the environment
02:11and reduce poverty levels, reduce malnutrition,
02:15and improve food security, improve livelihoods.
02:19All these activities have got a cascade of effects,
02:22which is why we're calling it One Health,
02:24because every time it benefits the health of animals,
02:26health of people and their families, health of the environment.
02:30We have realized that women play a key role in managing natural resources.
02:36Obviously, they have specific roles.
02:40They collect water, they collect firewood,
02:42they produce the food that is going to feed their families.
02:47And through them, you can really bring change in these communities
02:53and improve the livelihood.
02:55If you want to improve things, working with women has got incredible repercussions.