Culture and Knowledge

Our work on Culture and Knowledge aims to ensure that the communities we work with can live according to their traditional practices, using their languages and on their ancestral lands - and for these to be respected by states and policymakers. We invest in self-determined initiatives to document, restore and transmit knowledge, with particular focus on the leadership of youth and women, and support indigenous-led networking on indigenous knowledge. We use international policy levers such as the Biodiversity Convention, Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and UNESCO, to advocate for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in science platforms.

Context

The repression of indigenous cultures, languages, and knowledge is widely experienced by our partners across the globe. This affects the communities, who are often seen negatively as a result, but also conservation policy, which prioritises modern techniques over traditional ones to conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change.

This knowledge is crucial to the survival of not only the communities, but also our planet as we know it. When indigenous peoples have ownership over their lands and waters, research has shown that levels of biodiversity are significantly higher. FPP helps communities collect data, present evidence, and make space on the global stage to present their solution to biodiversity loss and climate change.

Strengthening traditional cultures and knowledge is integrated in all of our work. FPP is also the co-founder of the Indigenous-Led Education Network (ILED), which specifically focuses on this area. The ILED Network works across the globe to support indigenous grassroots initiatives that uphold, preserve and pass on Indigenous cultures, languages, ways of life and knowledge systems to Indigenous youth.

We aim to ensure that the partners that we work with have financial, technical and political support to sustain and revitalise their cultural knowledge and practices, secure in their lands, territories and waters and with the engagement of all sections of the community.

The knowledge held by indigenous elders, and which is indivisible from their languages, is a key component in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. This is why we support indigenous leaders in attending global conferences like the Climate and Biodiversity COPs to be able to showcase their key learnings and successes and to incorporate their knowledge and skills into global, national and local policies.

The work towards these aims includes:

• Strengthening and revitalising traditional knowledge systems, languages, cultures and ways of life, and advancing external recognition and support for such systems.
• Investing in cultural and ecological resilience: the initiatives FPP support (through short term grants and through the Forest Visions) are based on communities’ own priorities, which is the most effective way to boost indigenous peoples and local communities’ resilience and self-determination.
• Supporting indigenous peoples and forest peoples in documentation, restoration and maintenance of knowledge systems, including through the Centres of Distinction on Traditional and Local Knowledge.
• Advocating for recognition of indigenous and local knowledge systems in scientific platforms such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the Convention on Biological Diversity, among others, through our collaborative partnership in Transformative Pathways and the Centres of Distinction