RRepresentatives of Afro-descendant communities demanded this Thursday more participation and recognition in the negotiations taking place at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, and in future environmental summits for the role they play in the protection and conservation of biodiversity.
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This was defended at the International Forum of Afro-descendants, in which the vice president and Minister of Equality of Colombia, Francia Márquez, supported the demands. from several Latin American communities.
In this sense, the Afro-Colombian leader and human rights defender Elizabeth Moreno Barco denounced that “social marginalization, institutional racism and gender violence”, among others, that black communities face prevent their voices from “being heard.”
“We face great barriers that violate our rights”she lamented, adding that Afro women are the ones who have been and are “on the front line of protecting” natural resources, something that should be recognized.
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Moreno Barco was awarded the 2023 Nansen-Americas Prize from UNHCR for her work with displaced people and victims of the conflict in Colombia.
COP16
EFE
The activist recalled that Afro communities in Latin America and the Caribbean inhabit more than 205 million hectares that are important for the planet’s biodiversity. Therefore, they should have a voice within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be able to explain their experiences and “struggles to address challenges around global biodiversity.”
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Throughout this Thursday, Afro-descendant communities will present the conclusions of the Africa and its Diaspora Summit, held last week in Cali, and will socialize a declaration that includes recommendations and demands to the CBD to ensure that its proposals are integrated into high-level decisions. level that emerge from COP16.
In this regard, the deputy executive secretary of the CBD Secretariat, David Cooper, highlighted the need to “find ways” so that people can participate in decision-making that allows them to “continue caring for biodiversity.”while defending the urgency of “protecting traditional Afro knowledge.”
“Iconic fact”
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism has a participation in the academic agenda of COP16 that includes interventions in events that respond to the Government’s commitment to preserving biodiversity.
Mincomercio
For the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and president of COP16, Susana Muhamad, This forum and its holding in the Blue Zone, where high-level negotiations take place, is an “iconic event” because it implies that “it is not a peripheral issue.”
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“Thanks to the commitment of the black people of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the work of important leaders, this issue has managed to be present at COP16 as an important negotiation topic.” and with active participation, highlighted Muhamad.
Furthermore, he insisted that meeting the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework is not “only a matter of governments”but it has to be accompanied by “mobilization and support for political empowerment of those communities that are on the front lines” of biodiversity protection and conservation.
The COP16 on Biodiversity, which is being held in Cali until next November 1, has as its emblem ‘The COP of the people’ and has had a wide participation of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in various spaces at the summit.
EFE
