From CBA19 to the global climate negotiations: nature must take centre stage

CBA19 hosted communities from diverse regions and landscapes. Their local knowledge and experience were fundamental in addressing the conference’s overarching question: “how can we achieve just and equitable adaptation?”

Sessions within the event’s nature and adaptation track explored:

Financing for locally led, nature-based adaptation
Integrating scientific and traditional knowledge into nature-based adaptation
Mangroves as superpowers for locally led adaptation
The impacts of climate change and coastal ecosystem conservation on gender justice and women’s fisher groups
Delivering just climate adaptation and nature-based solutions in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
Climate adaptation and resilience in Brazil’s semi-arid region
Locally led and nature-based solutions for just and equitable climate adaptation, and
Local knowledge and women’s leadership in Brazil’s semi-arid region.

Brazil’s mega-biodiversity

Brazil was a fitting setting for discussing the role of nature in climate adaptation: it is among the world’s most megadiverse countries, accounting for 12% of the planet’s biodiversity and has the largest tropical forest cover globally.

Furthermore, Brazil is home to six continental biomes each in different climatic zones with their own unique biodiversity. CBA19’s host city of Recife is located in Zona da Mata, a narrow strip of Atlantic rainforest with large areas of mangrove and close to the semi-arid Caatinga – a biome unique to Brazil and the most vulnerable to climate change.

Local participants from the Caatinga shared their challenges, including water scarcity and aridity. But they also shared their stories of resilience, and how they draw on agroecology, solidarity, technologies adapted to the local context, and ancestral knowledge to develop powerful grassroots solutions.

Local fisherwomen participated from the Costa dos Corais – Brazil’s largest marine protected area and coral reef ecosystem spanning the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas. They recounted the challenges faced by female fishers, including gender-based violence and invisibility in public policies, as well as the vital role of women and their knowledge in protecting and conserving aquatic ecosystems.

Indigenous knowledge and land tenure

Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) are disproportionately impacted by climate change since they depend directly on natural resources.

Indigenous knowledge is critical to address climate and biodiversity challenges, but remains under recognised in international policy. Participants from Indigenous communities in several countries voiced a shared message at CBA19: Indigenous and traditional knowledge must be integrated with scientific and technical knowledge to drive climate action that is equitable and has lasting impact.

Furthermore, securing land tenure for Indigenous Peoples and recognising customary land rights is the best way to support joint climate and biodiversity action. This centres justice and equity in climate adaptation; rights, recognition and agency are essential for IPs and LCs to apply their knowledge, conserve nature and adapt to climate change.

Nature and culture

Indigenous participants emphasised the cultural values of nature and the inextricable link between nature, people and culture. Debates around nature-based solutions are important, but risk reducing nature to a functional solution to the climate problem, and overlooking the value that nature holds for IPs and LCs.

These values extend beyond technical, economic or biological, and include cultural, spiritual and sacred values. The cultures and lifestyles of many IPs and LCs are deeply linked to land and nature. Participants proposed to expand ‘nature-based solutions’ to include ‘local culture-based solutions’ to acknowledge this profound connection between nature, people and culture.

Field visits and key messages

Field visits to Pernambuco highlighted the critical role of local knowledge, nature and culture in climate resilience, including:

Adaptation of family farmers in the semi-arid Caatinga region
Agroecology and agroforestry, Afro-Brazilian knowledge and mangrove protection in a Quilombola Community on Pernambuco’s Atlantic Forest coast, and
Green spaces for nutrition and climate mitigation in Peixinhos favela in northern Recife.

These initiatives show that Indigenous Peoples, family farmers, women, and Black and Afro-descendants Peoples possess vital knowledge and solutions to address climate change and biodiversity loss. They also demonstrate the active role which nature plays in climate adaptation and resilience.

CBA19’s key messages (en español | em português) captured key insights:

Nature-based solutions should be expanded to include ‘local culture-based solutions’ to acknowledge the vital link between nature, people and culture
Integration of diverse knowledge systems within climate action, bridging ancestral, traditional, indigenous, scientific, technical, intersectional and popular knowledges, and
Securing tenure rights for equitable and just adaptation and resilience.

Nature at COP30

In November, Brazil’s northern city of Belém will host COP30. The presidency has set out 30 key priorities. Nature features heavily, with several objectives aimed at stewarding forests, oceans and biodiversity.

Brazil has shown its commitment to bringing nature and people into the climate negotiations. The presidency is leading the way on unifying the UN conventions on climate, biodiversity and desertification and are due to launch ambitious new financing for forests.

They are also championing a ‘socio-bioeconomy’ model designed to preserve traditional cultures and values of Indigenous Peoples, transform agriculture and advance climate and biodiversity action.

CBA19 messages at COP30

We call on COP30 negotiators to put nature at the forefront of climate decision-making. We cannot mitigate or adapt to climate change without protecting and restoring nature and the natural resources we depend on.

Protecting nature is not a solution but a prerequisite to climate action. Nature sustains all life on earth and must be recognised for its intrinsic value. For Indigenous Peoples, nature is a way of life, and issues around nature and climate are inseparable.

Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendent communities must be central to global climate decision-making. They possess the best knowledge for conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change, and their rights and values must be championed.

CBA19 highlighted that respecting the rights, knowledge and cultures of these local actors is key for just and equitable climate adaptation. COP30 should reinforce this same message and put nature and people at the heart of climate action.