As COVID-19 has hobbled governments around the world, environmental protections have diminished or disappeared altogether, leaving the door wide open for abuse, corruption, land grabs. Indigenous peoples and their territories are prime targets to pillage during this vulnerable period.

This series of three webinars features indigenous and non-indigenous leaders in a virtual roundtable to discuss both the key effects that COVID-19 is generating in their communities as well as possible solutions and the way forward.

Thursday 24 September 2020 | 11:00am – 12:00pm BST | Via Zoom

The World Indigenous Forum (WIF) is the largest indigenous-focused conference in the world. We exist to support indigenous business owners globally – and to connect them with expert knowledge, international markets and the investment partners they need to finance and scale their businesses.

Land and Labour in the Karen Hills: Cosmology and value in the study of agrarian change

Date and location:

13.30-15.00, 6 January 2021 (Thai time)

Chiang Mai University

The Land Portal Foundation, the Tenure Facility, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Ford Foundation proposed a series of Land Dialogues promoting the centrality of Indigenous and community land rights in advancing global efforts to halt the climate crisis, achieving a healthy planet and forwarding the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The webinar Rolling back social and environmental safeguards in the name of COVID-19., organized by Forest Peoples Programme, the Tenure Facility,  Middlesex University, the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and the Land Portal, took place on Thursday, February 18, 2021 . 

April 22nd, 2021 | 9:00AM-10:30AM EST - 3:00-4:30 CEST

Watch livestream here:  

The Ford Foundation, the Land Portal Foundation, the Tenure Facility and the Thomson Reuters Foundation launched a webinar on May 20th on the the link between “environmental imbalances” and “emerging infectious diseases".

Indigenous Peoples globally have high exposure to environmental change and are often considered an ‘‘at-risk’’ population, although there is growing evidence of their resilience. Ample research illustrates that Indigenous Peoples are actively observing and adapting to change in a diversity of ways. In this webinar we examined the common factor affecting resilience to environmental change among Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Securing land rights is critical for realizing sustainable food systems that provide food security and overcome poverty. Security of property rights is central to preserving livelihoods, maintaining social stability, and increasing incentives for investment and for sustainable, productive land use.