BOGOTA — The Colombian government said Tuesday it had granted the country’s Indigenous groups new environmental authority on their lands, just days before hosting the UN’s COP16 conference on biodiversity.
“We have signed a decree with the president of the republic that recognizes the Indigenous authorities as the environmental authorities of their people and territory,” Environment Minister Susana Muhamad told reporters.
She added that 115 Indigenous communities would wield new powers within their territories, including over land use, ecosystem protection and conservation rulemaking.
“This is one of the main messages of COP16. It is the constructive dialogue between science and institutions with ancestral and traditional knowledge that is really going to be able to make peace with nature,” Muhamad said.
It remains unclear how the decree will be implemented, and several agricultural groups have raised concerns that it does not define the boundaries of Indigenous lands and could lead to restrictions on water use.
President Gustavo Petro hailed the decree as the payment of a historical debt to Indigenous communities.
“No one can teach any Colombian or any institution how to build a vital balance between human beings and nature, like Indigenous peoples,” he said on social media platform X, adding that those who had been “forcibly brought to their knees” were claiming new powers with the decree’s signing.
At the COP16 biodiversity conference in the Colombian city of Cali, delegates will discuss ways to combat poaching of everything from elephant ivory to pangolin scales.
In an interview with AFP last month, Muhamad said a key priority of the conference would be creating a body that allows Indigenous communities to access funds for conservation.
