COP28: Chief Perry Bellegarde

The need to get indigenous peoples involved in decision-making

"It's time for implementation in a more quicker and efficient manner. Let's keep the drive for 1.5 alive. Let's really reach those goals and targets and actually implement them so that governments work with the private sector and the philanthropic sector include indigenous voices."

Perry Bellegarde has first-hand experience of the impact of the climate and biodiversity crisis on indigenous communities. As the former National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, he is keenly aware that indigenous peoples' close relationship with the land and water make them particularly vulnerable to changing weather patterns, rising waters and the loss of species, and how their role as guardians of the natural world gives them a unique insight into potential climate solutions.

If we are to restore nature, we need to include those invaluable insights into our broader political and business approach, so we can manage ecosystems harmoniously and make use of the earth's resources without depleting them. As a first step, indigenous people need to be included in the key conversations that are deciding our response to the climate crisis, to give policy makers, business leaders, scientists and campaigners the opportunity benefit from the experience of those that have the closest relationship with nature.