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The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, at its Seventeenth Regular Session, requested its Secretary to prepare for review by the intergovernmental technical working groups on animal, aquatic, forest and plant genetic resources to produce an up-to-date survey of existing legislative, administrative and policy approaches, including best practices, for ABS for the different subsectors of GRFA and traditional knowledge associated with GRFA held by indigenous peoples and local communities, with the aim of identifying typical approaches and lessons learned from their implementation, as well as challenges and possible solutions.The current survey comprises a baseline desktop review of legislation, [...]

The Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) is a landmark decision that was reached at the UN Climate Conference (COP23) in November 2017 on the next steps for agriculture within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).The objective of this brief is to provide recommendations on how the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) can support the adequate integration of Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and practices in international, national and local governance systems.

This publication presents ten scalable intercultural collaboration experiences that demonstrate the importance, efficiency and effectiveness of working hand in hand with men, women and youth of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in the search for practical solutions developed from the synergy between ancestral knowledge and scientific and technological innovation.Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants are two of the rural groups with the greatest potential to contribute to climate change mitigation in Latin America. Both groups are highly vulnerable to natural disasters and the effects of climate on agriculture and food, yet their ancestral knowledge and collective territorial [...]

This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples' food systems, in terms of natural resource management, access to the market, diet diversity, indigenous peoples’ governance systems, and links to traditional knowledge and indigenous languages. While enhancing the learning on Indigenous Peoples food systems, it will raise awareness on the need to enhance the protection of Indigenous Peoples' food systems as a source of livelihood for the 476 million indigenous inhabitants in the world, while contributing to the Zero Hunger Goal.In addition, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and the UN Food [...]

Globally, and with only a few exceptions, rural and indigenous women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men on every indicator for which data are available. Although they share challenges in the form of rural location and genderbased discrimination, rural women and girls are not a homogeneous group. The opportunities and constraints they face differ across their lifetimes, contexts and circumstances; they are influenced by location and socio-economic statusand social identities associated with other forms of marginalization, such as indigenous origin and ethnicity, age, disability, migrant or refugee status. The complex experiences of rural and indigenous women [...]

This narrative provides useful insights when working with indigenous peoples. It offers an overview of some of the work done by the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit and provides an historical background since the adoption of the Indigenous peoples ́ policy. It also explains the ongoing work-programme jointly designed by Indigenous peoples and FAO staff, describing its seven pillars and two thematic areas. The narrative introduces essential concepts such as indigenous peoples ́ food systems, FPIC, Interculturality and Biocentric restoration among others.

There are 476 million indigenous peoples around the world, constituting 6.2 percent of the global population and, according to different sources, representing more than 19% of the extreme poor (ILO, 2019) of the world. Half of this population are women (approximately 240 million).Even though indigenous peoples represent 19 percent of the global poor population (ILO, 2019), it is important to highlight that indigenous peoples and indigenous women are not vulnerable populations per se.For thousands of years, indigenous women have played a fundamental role in preserving their livelihoods, languages, culture, cosmogony and territory. However, the systemic lack of recognition of their [...]

FAO  urges  governments,  academia,  NGOs,  international  community  and  indigenous  peoples authorities to take specific measures that ensure the respect to indigenous peoples’ rights during the pandemic and that includes an intercultural approach when dealing with the emergency, safety and health aspects of the response. Also available in Spanish and French

This study, the third of its type published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), adds further evidence that in mountain regions of developing countries, food insecurity, social isolation, environmental degradation, exposure to the risk of disasters and to the impacts of climate change, and limited access to basic services, especially in rural areas, are still prevalent and, under some circumstances, increasing. It also shows the technical challenges for producing more comprehensive and representative assessments based on scientific data, and providing a deeper understanding of the underlying factors of vulnerability of mountain people. Mountains cover 39 million [...]

La presente guía ha sido desarrollada con los elementos brindados por lo líderes indígenas y pescadores indígenas por medio de la APICA y representantes de las instituciones estatales dedicadas a la desarrollo de la pesca en los países centroamericanos , siendo priorizados y consensuados por los representantes indígenas centroamericanos para valorar la gobernanza de la pesca indígena para la afirmación de la gestión territorial en función del crecimiento económico, la inclusión social y protección ambiental. Only available in Spanish.