Report

Indigenous Peoples in the Rio Conventions

Representatives of Indigenous Peoples made significant advances in 2024 at the back-to-back-to-back Conferences of the Parties of the three Rio Conventions. Years of advocacy paid off in expanded arrangements for their engagement in biodiversity, climate change, and desertification talks. Yet, some obstacles remain.

By Elsa Tsioumani (PhD), Jennifer Bansard, Pamela Chasek on July 31, 2025

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Key Messages

Sustained advocacy of Indigenous Peoples as rights-holders has paid off with increased understanding in the international arena of Indigenous Peoples' valuable contributions to sustainability and deeper institutionalization of their participation.
Advances in the human rights system have helped open avenues for Indigenous Peoples in the Rio Conventions, though acceptance of human rights language is inconsistent and may act as a lightning rod.
Access to direct funding remains the key demand of Indigenous Peoples' organizations under all three Rio Conventions, both for their participation in meetings and continuation of customary practices on the ground.
Indigenous Peoples have shown that coordination, coalition building, and articulation of their rights can make real change.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin team has been a decades-long witness and record of this advocacy. In consultation with Indigenous experts and drawing from more than 30 years covering the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, this report explores where Indigenous Peoples' negotiators made progress in 2024, which lessons could apply across silos to other environmental negotiations, and what obstacles still remain as the world struggles to respond to the triple planetary crisis.

With special thanks to Jennifer Corpuz, Preston Hardison, Donna Mitzi Lagdameo, JulietGrace Luwedde, Marco Montoiro, Graeme Reed, and Camila Zepeda.