Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) live in areas that overlap with zones high in biodiversity. These high biodiversity areas often are also rich in cultural diversity, as evidenced by the diversification of languages spoken in these areas. Considering this overlap, decisions concerning biodiversity may impact their lives. Strong knowledge about the international and national regulation and policy on biodiversity is important to enhance the full and effective participation of IPLCs in implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at all levels.

The paper also focuses on the analysis of the right to food from an indigenous peoples’ perspective and addresses the main issues of concern to indigenous peoples that crosscut the right to food - including access to natural resources, intellectual property rights and the environment.

The rights of indigenous peoples enshrined in the UN Declaration reflect existing rights affirmed in international human rights law, now placed in the context of indigenous peoples’ realities. Parliamentarians have an important role to play in ensuring the implementation of international human rights, including the UN Declaration and related legal and constitutional norms.

This section of the training module tries to capture some short key messages from agreed UN policy documents, which are intended to guide UN staff members during the planning and implementation of development processes. Adherence to this guidance should ultimately result in the improved recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights at the national level, putting policy into practice.

The purpose of the Guidelines is to assist the United Nations system to mainstream and integrate indigenous peoples’ issues in processes for operational activities and programme at the country level. The Guidelines set out the broad normative, policy and operational framework for implementing a human rights-based and culturally sensitive approach to development for and with indigenous peoples

One of the objectives of this Kit is to provide elements to help the UNCTs understand the language specific to indigenous peoples in the CCA/UNDAF Guidelines, thereby facilitating their implementation. An additional purpose is to support UNCTs in the “roll-out” of the UNDG Guidelines on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues. Finally, this Resource Kit also supports the efforts of the Permanent Forum in promoting the implementation of its mandate at the country level.

This is not an exhaustive inventory of the experiences of the UN system. The case studies and projects profiled demonstrate how partnering with indigenous nations, peoples and communities is integral to the success of UN policies, programme and projects.

UNEP is currently working towards the enhancement of civil society engagement in general within the organisation as well as the intergovernmental processes. As an important first step to improve and support the participation of IPOs in the Governing Council of UNEP as well as the preceding Global Civil Society Forum is to encourage IPOs to become accredited to UNEP.

In 2018 the federal government proposed a replacement for the Environmental Assessment Act, that, if assented to should increase the incorporation of TK in the environmental assessment process. The proposed Impact Assessment Act, will “show how a proposed project could affect the environment, health, society, and the economy, as well how the development would impact Indigenous people over the long term.”

UNESCO has recognized that to participate more actively in the development of society indigenous communities, including tribal people and ethnic groups in the Asia-Pacific region have to make the transition from oral literacy traditions to cultures that combine oral and written literacy. The manual has been conceived to support interactive literacy training programmes where trainers are actively engaged in the learning process. In this sense. it adopts a learner-centred approach to training and functional content areas.