Session 4 – Defending our Future: Securing a Future for Environmental Defenders – and our Planet

*The views expressed in this recording are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP, or the UN Member States.

29 September 2020, 3:00-4:30 PM (EDT)

Meet the speakers

In 2019, more than 200 environmental defenders were killed, and many more were tortured, beaten or intimidated. Environmental defenders are at the frontline in protecting the nature that sustains all. In this session, we will hear from the diverse peoples who protect the world’s forests, the Indigenous and community leaders who are being criminalized and murdered at alarming rates. This is a serious problem not only for the communities themselves who lose family members, homes and livelihoods but also for the forests they protect. Eighty percent of the world’s biodiversity is protected by Indigenous and local peoples with a critical mass of scientific research proving that any plan for conservation must have elected indigenous leaders and local peoples guiding decisions. In this closing session of the Nature for Life Hub, we will also hear how we can support the world’s Indigenous and local communities as they fight to protect the last remaining tropical rainforests.

Resources of interest