Resources

This report covers the webinar on Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ (IPLC) Perspectives and Experiences on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) Webinar conducted on December 18, 2020. It serves as a written record of discussions, experiences, insights, challenges and recommendations shared during the webinar. It consolidates views shared in the webinar and seeks to reflect perspectives of the participants accordingly.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is doing an assessment on IAS and has conducted activities to involve Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in the processes. The thematic assessment of IAS is an opportunity to document experiences of IPLCs to complement and reinforce science and policy development and reforms informed by ground data. Indigenous Peoples have concepts of IAS that differ in many ways from dominant concepts in non-indigenous science. This begins with the concept of “species.” For many Indigenous Peoples, the natural world is populated with a multitude of living entities, all standing in equal status to humans.

Indigenous Peoples have a range of reactions to the arrival of new species in their territories. Their spiritual beliefs and values affect their initial perceptions and responses that are often one of accommodation. But they are also aware of the harms that newly arrived species (NAS) can cause to their environment, their subsistence activities and livelihoods, the transmission of traditional knowledge, and. the economic and social costs. In some cases, Indigenous Peoples and local communities find uses for these new arrivals, while in other cases, expend considerable effort to control, and even eradicate them. Cultural values among IPLCs play a role in the management of new plants and animals or NAS.