Plan to displace 300 million Indigenous people to be discussed at Joe Biden’s virtual summit

‘This is the biggest land grab in world history,’ says head of conservation campaign. Charlie Jay reports

Indigenous groups are the best guardians of nature and are key to protecting biodiversity (AFP via Getty)

A plan that could reduce 300 million people to landless poverty is expected to be discussed at President Biden’s virtual Leaders’ Summit on Climate this week, and to be agreed at the COP15 summit in China in October.

Fiore Longo of Survival, an organisation that fights for indigenous rights, said: “The plan for 30 per cent by 2030 is the biggest land grab in world history and it will reduce hundreds of millions of people to landless poverty. That’s why Survival is pushing against it. It’s commonly known that indigenous peoples are the best guardians of nature, that they’re an essential part of human diversity that is key to protecting biodiversity. But big conservation NGOs continue to ignore this and push for protected areas. They claim it will mitigate climate change and save our environment, but they’re wrong. It is vital that we stop evicting indigenous peoples from the lands they manage, and start recognising their rights.”

New research has shown that only three percent of the earth’s land is ecologically intact, and this has a huge implications on biodiversity.