80 per cent of Earth’s remaining terrestrial biodiversity lies within land managed or governed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Research has shown a clear relationship between a diversity of languages (a proxy for cultural diversity) and biodiversity. This is because where Indigenous Peoples and local communities have strong ties to their territories and are able to remain on them and defend them and their cultures from external threats, biodiversity often flourishes. Yet this biocultural diversity and the knowledge and lifeways that protect and enhance it, are rapidly being lost.

OUR PROGRAMME:

The absence of secure land ownership or tenure for Indigenous Peoples and local communities fuels poverty, social and gender inequalities, food insecurity, conflict and environmental degradation globally. However, when people have secure rights over their land, it helps to address many of these issues.

In addition, the preservation of local cultures is vital to retain the ancestral environmental knowledge that has kept their lands ecologically intact. But despite its importance, funding for protecting and reviving biocultural diversity is severely limited. So, the Biocultural Diversity Programme (formerly the Flourishing Diversity Programme) was founded to support Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ organisations to protect and revive their biocultural diversity.