Podong Initiative
Programmes and projects lead by the IIFB to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation in their lands and territories.
The Podong Indigenous Initiative is a global initiative that aims to recognize and support Indigenous Peoples’ contributions to the conservation of biodiversity and climate solutions through their indigenous knowledge systems, while ensuring their full and effective leadership and access to adequate resources for the implementation and achievement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. The initiative is co-designed, co-developed and co-led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), IUCN’s Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Members (IPOs) and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), who all have signed an agreement to jointly develop and implement the initiative.
Concretely, the Podong Indigenous Initiative directly addresses the biodiversity and climate challenges mentioned above. Moreover, IUCN IPO Members and IIFB have directly requested to work more closely with IUCN as a trusted partner in accelerating resource mobilisation for IPs and local communities (LCs), through the co-design, co-leadership and co-delivery of biodiversity and climate solutions. This is why since July 2023, we have been working with those IP partners to ensure that action is taken on our institutional commitment along these lines.
The initiative’s ultimate outcome is to maintain, enhance and restore the integrity, connectivity and resilience of globally significant biodiversity located within Indigenous territories. This is achieved through four, mutually supportive pillars, fully co-designed and co-led by Indigenous leaders, that aim to increase inclusive, gender-responsive,5 and fully financed, Indigenous-led in situ conservation action.
