Neocolonial Knowledge Production at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

Keywords: political ecology, conservation, environmental knowledge, rights, Indigenous peoples, biodiversity, UN
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In December 2022, the Parties to UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) negotiated and finalized the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, a set of international commitments that sets the agenda for biodiversity conservation for the next 30 years. As a multilateral treaty, the CBD is a highly contested political terrain of environmental knowledge production, privileging member states as Parties in its formal negotiations, and relegating Indigenous groups to Observer status. By employing a political ecology approach, I explore how Indigenous groups are navigating these negotiations and working strategically to advance a rights-based and decolonial environmental agenda, despite the neocolonial structure of the negotiations. Specifically, Indigenous organizations are leveraging existing policy discourses on rights found elsewhere within the UN, like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, to articulate the imperative for a rights-based Global Biodiversity Framework. At the same time, Indigenous organizations are also using Western and colonial indicators for conservation outcomes, like aerial surveys and data on land tenure, in order to advance claims to territory and to demonstrate the efficacy of Indigenous-led conservation projects. Thus, the CBD, and its negotiations, present a meaningful opportunity to explore interventions made by Indigenous organizations and how they work to challenge neocolonial environmental knowledge production and governance at the international scale. This paper reflects on this complex political space, as well as the insights it may offer towards a decolonial political ecology of conservation.