Indigenous Peoples are key and effective partners to achieve food security for all in a sustainable way.
Indigenous Peoples make up 6.2 percent of the global population, but they safeguard much of the world’s remaining biodiversity. This is also due to their food and knowledge systems, which are amongst the oldest, most resilient, and most sustainable on earth. Based on circularity, respect, reciprocity and care, Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems have been able to provide healthy and nutritious food for countless generations and continue to do so today and in the future.
FAO works for the recognition, preservation and promotion of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems: the game-changers of the transformations we need. More
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Key facts on Indigenous Peoples
Abundance and nutrition
Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems provide abundant, sustainable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to hundreds of millions of peoples around the world.
Sustainability
Sustainability is at the centre of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems. They are amongst the oldest and most resilient on earth.
Biodiversity
Much of the world’s remaining biodiversity is found within Indigenous Peoples' territories.
Knowledge and respect
Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems are based on deep knowledge and respect of their ecosystems. Some use hundreds of plant and animal species used for food and medicinal purposes.
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Resilience and risks
Despite their resilience, Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems face unprecedented threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, dispossession, displacement, violence and the use of harmful chemicals, which put them at risk of disappearance.
Self-sufficiency
Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems demonstrate high levels of self-sufficiency, some range from 50% to 80% in food and resource generation.
Highlights
FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit statement at the UNPFII plenary
24/04/2026
The statement was delivered by Yon Fernández de Larrinoa, Head of the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit, at the Plenary of the 25th Session of the UN Permanent...
Free, Prior and Informed Consent: a right between challenges and new spaces for participation
22/04/2026
On the eve of UNDRIP’s 20th anniversary, it is more important than ever to recognize FPIC as the starting point for just and meaningful engagement...
Beyond 20 years of the Voluntary Guidelines for Right to Food: Progress and Emerging Challenges for Indigenous Peoples
10/10/2025
This policy brief reviews developments over the past two decades, assesses the persisting challenges for Indigenous Peoples to feed themselves with...
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Indigenous Peoples’ food systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate change
01/01/2021
This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples' food systems, in terms of natural resource...