Indigenous critiques and recommendations for reclaiming nature-based solutions

Indigenous peoples have long histories and diverse contemporary practices of caring for and enhancing biodiversity at different scales, in rural and urban contexts. As has been researched and documented by the Convention on Biological Diversity and others, Indigenous peoples globally only constitute 5% of the world’s population and control and care for just 20% of the Earth’s surface yet protect nearly 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Indigenous peoples have forms of biodiversity conservation that could be characterized as “nature-based solutions” (NbS), or would they be culture-based solutions? Given the extraordinary diversity of Indigenous peoples globally, there will never be a “one size fits all” solution. Yet there are general principles that have been articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that articulate global concepts of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). IKS, TEK, and Native ways of knowing and caring for biodiversity can find both resonance and conflict with what is currently being called NbS. This article articulates Indigenous concerns and critiques of the conceptual and ontological framework of NbS, demonstrating that Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems include a similar framework but extend it to include a distinctly biocultural and relational orientation that does not make an artificial division between nature and culture. Different Indigenous perspectives and approaches to sustainability will be highlighted, including two case stories. We conclude with recommendations for respectful, just, decolonial, and transparent ways to explore greater resonance between NbS and Indigenous peoples’ rights.