International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB)

The International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) was formed During the III Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP III) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 1996. The IIFB is a collection of representatives from indigenous governments, indigenous non-governmental organizations and indigenous scholars and activists that rganize around the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other important international environmental meetings to help coordinate indigenous strategies at these meetings, provide advice to the government parties, and influence the interpretations of government obligations to recognize and respect indigenous rights to the knowledge and resources.

The CBD is an important international environmental convention, because it contains numerous passages that recognize traditional resource and knowledge rights, the most important of which is Article 8(j).