The Sámi Parliament in Finland says new rules for a UN biodiversity body haven’t settled how Sámi and Inuit will choose their representatives and ensure the Arctic is represented.
The UN biodiversity conference (COP 17) wound up on Oct. 30 in Yerevan, Armenia.
Among the meeting’s priorities was to assess national plans to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes a target of protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land and waters by 2030.
At the previous conference, countries established a permanent body to address Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ participation in biodiversity conservation and to help protect traditional knowledge. That conference also guaranteed representation from seven Indigenous sociocultural regions, including the Arctic, the Sámi Parliament said.
At COP17, countries agreed on operating rules for the permanent body, including a temporary group of Indigenous Peoples’ and local community representatives to support its leadership at each meeting, but the Sámi Parliament said they wanted something permanent that clearly protected Indigenous Peoples’ own representation.
Importance of seven-region system for Arctic
The UN’s five regional groupings used by states do not recognise the Arctic as a separate region. Under the seven-region system, Sámi and Inuit can select Arctic representatives through their own procedures, rather than depending on the larger state-based groupings.
“The Sámi Parliament is concerned about how Western democracies, including the EU, will be able to ensure the effective participation of the Sámi and Inuit in particular,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our right to select our own representatives through our own processes is based on Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination,” Pirita Näkkäläjärvi, President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, added.
“The distinct status of Indigenous Peoples must not be weakened by combining their representation with that of other groups, such as local communities.”
The parliament said discussions will continue ahead of the next biodiversity conference in 2028.
Comments, tips or story ideas? Contact Eilís at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Inuit, Sámi urge COP17 to protect distinct Indigenous rights, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Brakes on Lapland health cuts a win for Arctic communities, says Sami Parliament, Eye on the Arctic
Greenland: Visibility isn’t enough, Arctic Indigenous women say authority must follow, Eye on the Arctic
Russia: Russian Indigenous groups call on Elon Musk to boycott company behind Arctic environmental disasters, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: Canadian Gwich’in leaders and conservationists suing U.S. over leasing program for Arctic wildlife refuge, CBC News
