The event seeks to raise awareness and make an urgent call to action in support of these populations, which in addition to being affected by climatic variables, can contribute to help solve a crisis that they did not create, according to a promotional statement from the seminar.

Among the purposes of the seminar is also ‘to promote the protection of the rights’ of these population groups and the recognition of their role in the preservation of biodiversity in the face of climate change, from reinforcing actions to ensure their participation in the processes of decision-making.

FAO’s statement recalls that five years ago Pope Francis published the encyclical Laudato Si, urging humanity ‘to pay attention to the way in which indigenous peoples and other local communities take care of our common home.’

It also mentions a report of the organization on Latin America and the Caribbean showing evidence reaffirming the certainty of what was expressed by His Holiness.

In this sense, it exemplifies that deforestation rates are significantly lower in indigenous and tribal territories where governments formally recognized collective territorial rights.

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