At a Conference in Nepal, Indigenous-Led Research and Education Will Take Center Stage – State of the Planet

The second International Conference on Indigenous-led Research and Education will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 29 and 30, 2024. With its focus on climate change and other key issues in sustainable development and Indigenous rights, the event builds on the success of the first international conference, organized by the same group and held in Kathmandu in September 2023.

By presenting Indigenous-led research through methodologies including stories and case studies, the assembly will highlight their lived experiences and community programs. A major theme of this event will be traditional foods and economies. Presenters will discuss the impacts of climate change, modern education, development programs and conservation activities through a lens of food sovereignty. Other themes include biodiversity and conservation, customary governance and tenure rights, Indigenous education and development, and conflict and peace-building. The organizing committee will publish the presentations for wider dissemination and for inclusion at upcoming conferences of parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as in national planning processes.

“Indigenous Peoples have been living with their surrounding landscape, natural resources and biodiversity, and continue practicing traditional livelihoods, knowledge, skills, cultural values, food and economy for generations. However, Indigenous Peoples have been struggling with climate and external threats to the continuation of Indigenous foods and economy,” according to Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Research and Development (CIPRED), an Indigenous organization in Nepal with ties across Asia, the Americas and the Pacific that organizes the conference. 

Pasang Dolma Sherpa, the executive director of CIPRED, told GlacierHub about the severity of climate change impacts on Indigenous Peoples, both across Asia and other continents and in her home region of Solukhumbu, where a glacial lake outburst flood this summer destroyed many homes and gardens. Sherpa also spoke with GlacierHub several years ago about her work in Indigenous rights and sustainable development at the United Nations.

Michael Petriello, a postdoctoral research scholar in the Center for Science and Society at the Columbia Climate School, told GlacierHub this conference is more necessary now than ever. “The indispensable importance of Indigenous values, worldviews, knowledges and approaches to addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and cultural survival have long been known. Yet  Indigenous leadership, governance, partnerships and priorities have far too frequently and unjustly been sidelined in these efforts.”

To address these challenges, the event will draw on Indigenous-led research to recognize, protect and promote Indigenous knowledge systems and values for a sustainable and resilient future. Sherpa underscored the importance of having Indigenous Peoples participate in discussions that frame solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises. She said she has visited some major international organizations that focus on mountain regions, where she sees “pictures of Indigenous Peoples as decorations on their walls,” but “when they discuss climate impacts, they do not bring up the question of justice for Indigenous Peoples.” Sherpa believes the conference is an opportunity to address this marginalization.

“We are promoting Indigenous-led resource education and development. We are putting our effort to bring a paradigm shift in discourse in climate change, conservation, development and education,” Sherpa said.

Ajit Subramaniam, a Lamont research professor of biology and paleo environment at the Columbia Climate School, said, “It is good to note that the organizers recognize the importance of developing the conference agenda with the local communities and that they will be disseminating the results widely.”

“Indigenous Peoples are vital to safeguarding humanity and the planet we depend on,” Petriello added.

As Sherpa, Petriello and Subramanian all suggest, this conference aims to shift the global conversation, centering Indigenous voices in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss.

Designed and organized by CIPRED, the conference sponsors include UNESCO, the Bangladesh-based Maleya Foundation, the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia, the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan and the School of Education at Kathmandu University. The conference is being supported financially by Rights Resources Initiative, the International Indigenous Women Forum based in Peru and the Nicaragua-based Pawanka Fund, as well as the United Nations Development Programme and the University of Michigan.

For more information on this conference, please contact Preity Gurung, a program officer at CIPRED or Mary Beth Jager, a research coordinator at the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan. You may also write to iplr.conference@gmail.com or visit www.cipred.org.np.