ECLAC and the Government of Argentina convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue on good practices promoted by women, indigenous peoples, local communities and subnational governments for sustainable development based on biodiversity

Within the framework of the United Nations High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development 2022, held in New York from July 5-18, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean together with the Government of the Argentine Republic organized the side event called Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean for the integration of biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and the transformative action of women, indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as local and subnational governments, for the advancement of Goals 5, 14 and 15.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with extraordinary biological and cultural riches, which have allowed its local communities, indigenous peoples and women leaders to lead actions and experiences that are a benchmark in the construction of good practices and public policies in favor of the integration of biodiversity from a gender and intersectional perspective.

However, today indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth have seen their sustainable development and sustainable economic recovery substantially affected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indigenous peoples occupy about 1/5 of the surface of LAC and their territories are predominantly forested areas (80%), but they have little financial support for the protection of their territories (FAO and FILAC, 2021). Likewise, both women and indigenous peoples and local communities in the region have been exposed to greater violence during the pandemic; in the case of women, several countries have reported an increase in cases of violence (ECLAC, 2022).

The region must move towards innovative, coherent, inclusive, participatory and adaptive forms of governance in order to facilitate structural changes that increase environmental, social and economic resilience and allow local initiatives to care for biodiversity to be scaled up to participatory policies and protocols at the national level. national and regional

Link to the video and note in the ECLAC repository: https://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/48349