High-level seminar will address the impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and Migrants

HIGH-LEVEL SEMINAR / Thursday, May 27, 2021 / 17:00 – 19:30 pm (CET)
The governments of Costa Rica, Spain and the Holy See and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have organized a high-level expert seminar to raise awareness of the critical actions needed to ensure the well-being of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and Migrants in the face of climate change.
The seminar will take place on Thursday May 27, at 17 hrs CET, as an urgent call to action in support of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and Migrants who are not only affected by climate change, but can be vital in helping to solve a climate crisis they have not created. Five years ago, His Holiness Pope Francis released the encyclical, Laudato Si, urging humanity to heed the way Indigenous Peoples and other local communities care for "our common home". A recent FAO report about Latin America and the Caribbean has provided powerful evidence confirming that His Holiness Pope Francis was right: deforestation rates are significantly lower in Indigenous and Tribal territories where governments have formally recognized collective territorial rights.
The high-level event will seek to promote the protection of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and Migrants rights and the recognition of their role in preserving biodiversity as a response to climate change, while reinforcing actions and measures to guarantee their full and effective participation in the decision-making processes that affect them.
The event will have interpretation available in Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Russian and Spanish.
Participants, experts and panelists
17:15 – 17:50 - Opening remarks
Dr. Qu Dongyu, Director-General, FAO; Debra Haaland, United States Secretary of the Interior - TBC; Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, Deputy Prime Minister of Spain; Epsy Campbell, First Vice-President of Costa Rica; Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Vatican City
17.50 – 18:00 -Keynote speaker
Anne Nuorgam, Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
18.00 – 18:35 - Panel discussion
Myrna Cunningham, President of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC); Richard Moreno Rodríguez, Coordinator, Afro-Colombian National Peace Council, Colombia; Alexis Neuberg, President of the Africa-Europe Diaspora Development Platform (ADEPT); Yon Fernández-de-Larrinoa, Chief of the Indigenous Peoples Unit of FAO.
18:35 – 19:10 –Open discussion
Pearnel Charles Jr, Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change of Jamaica; Beatriz Argimón, Vice President of Uruguay; René Castro-Salazar, FAO Assistant Director-General.
19:10 – 19:30 - Closing remarks
Anne Nuorgam, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII); Maximo Torero Cullen, FAO Chief Economist; M. Sanjayan, Chief Executive Officer, Conservation International (CI);
Bruno Oberle, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).