COMMENTARY: If we are to minimize species loss and collapse in ecosystem function, we must do all we can to support Indigenous Peoples’ rights & their efforts to protect their lands & waters, write WCS’s David Wilkie, @sslieberman, & @cyclonewatson. 1/10
Why? Decisions Indigenous Peoples have made over generations have done more to protect species and ecological systems than all the protected areas established and managed by individual countries combined. bit.ly/2SbAIAq
In fact, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are our best partners and most important political constituency for conserving natural resources in the wild landscapes and seascapes where we work.
Today, #COVID19 poses a dual threat to Indigenous Peoples, including a growing risk governments & private sector attempt to abrogate their rights. bit.ly/2S9yxxo
As Gonzalo Oliver Terrazas, president of La Paz Indigenous People's Organization, told us previously.
WCS supports the efforts of 205 communities in 39 countries around the world to secure and exercise their legitimate rights to govern their hereditary lands and retain their cultural identities. Examples below.
Africa:
-WCS helped 21 communities gain formal rights to manage their lands bordering Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park.
-WCS is supporting Efe, Lese, Mbuti, and Mbira peoples in exercising their territorial rights by establishing community forest concessions in Ituri region.
Asia:
-WCS helped over 31,000 Indigenous People in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea, assert their customary rights to decide the rules they will apply within their Locally-Managed Marine Areas.
North America:
-In Canada, we’re supporting efforts of 11 First Nations and 3 Inuvialuit communities to exercise their constitutional rights through land-use planning, community-based research and monitoring, and the establishment of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.
South America:
In the mid-1980s, we helped local communities establish first sustainable development reserves in Mamirauá and Amanã to protect the rights of traditional fishers and hunters. We have helped launch similar efforts across continent.
Even 135 yrs after Louis Pasteur successfully vaccinated against rabies, this preventable but deadly viral disease remains one of most neglected in developing world.
Its greatest burden falls on poor rural communities and especially on children in Africa & Asia. #WorldRabiesDay
Since rabid domestic dogs are the cause of 99% of global deaths from rabies in humans, dog vaccination, coupled with education and control of feral dog populations, is the key to fighting this devastating disease. 2/
Since rabies also severely affects endangered wildlife species such as the Ethiopian wolf and African wild dogs, vaccination of domestic dogs at the landscape level by veterinarians also contributes to the conservation of these unique animal species. 3/
Majority of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic—they jump from wildlife to people. Key to addressing this: our interactions, exploitation, and destruction of nature.
NOW: Christian Walzer of @WcsHealth will be speaking at #NatureForLife Hub. Watch live on our Facebook.
At WCS, our policy recommends stopping all commercial trade in wildlife for human consumption (particularly of birds and mammals) and closing all such markets.
Also: we have to acknowledge that outbreaks are inevitable as the interfaces between wildlife and humans increase, primarily due to deforestation and agricultural expansion, as WCS's Christian Walzer wrote in @FrontiersIn yesterday. doi.org/10.3389/fvets.…#NatureForLife
Nature-based solutions can provide up to 30% percent of the action needed by 2030 to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. #NatureForLife#ClimateChange
Intact forests are estimated to absorb 1/4 of total global carbon pollution annually, but we're losing them far too rapidly. #NatureForLife
This #IndigenousPeoplesDay, densely populated urban areas have garnered most of the media attention and public health response. What has been largely ignored is the impact of #COVID19 on Indigenous Peoples, writes WCS's David Wilkie.
First, Indigenous Peoples are at high risk of dying from the disease should they get it. This is because Indigenous Peoples tend to be:
👉geographically isolated
👉politically marginalized
👉economically insecure
👉neglected by national public health services
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They are particularly vulnerable because most communities have wholly inadequate access to PPE and lack Western medicines and facilities. #IndigenousPeoplesDay
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