Author: Juana Vera-Delgado

Juana Vera-Delgado is a senior gender and environmental justice advisor at the Global Forest Coalition (GFC), a feminist international coalition of NGOs and Indigenous peoples organizations defending social justice and the rights of forest peoples. Vera-Delgado is an agricultural engineer and Ph.D. in feminist political ecology awarded by Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She has over 30 years experience working with international and local NGOs in issues related to gender and environmental justice, biodiversity conservation, food security and sovereignty, water and climate justice. For the last five years, Vera-Delgado has been actively participating in the High Level Panel Forums of the UNEP, UNFCCC and CBD. She has published a number of articles in books and scientific journals.

Landmark Global Biodiversity Agreement Enshrines Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Providing Hope for Bolivia’s Guarani

After more than four years of negotiations, on Dec.19, 2022, nearly 200 nations adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—a binding agreement to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s biodiversity within 2030. The agreement represents a significant step forward towards rights-based, gender just and socially equitable biodiversity conservation.

There is hope that the agreement will help to return stolen lands to communities and ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples—like the Guaraní of Laguna Chica, Bolivia, located in the Yaku Agüa territory by Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina.