From Participation to Power: Indigenous Peoples, NBSAPs, and the Implementation Gap in Asia

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted in 2022, marks a historic milestone in international environmental policy through its explicit and unequivocal recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and contributions to conservation.

As a next step, Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity were required to update and revise their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to align with the KMGBF within two years. These updates, still ongoing in many countries, provide a prime opportunity to strengthen Indigenous Peoples’ rights and integrate their knowledge.

This regional report is part of a series documenting Indigenous Peoples’ and advocates’ experiences with NBSAP revision processes in several Asian countries where AIPP members and partners are active. By examining both successful engagement strategies and persistent challenges, they offer insights for other Indigenous advocates, highlight key concerns for policy-makers, and point to important opportunities for allies to support Indigenous Peoples.

Policy Brief

These brief highlights key findings from a regional synthesis report and recommendations for governments and funders to transform biodiversity governance.

While NBSAPs increasingly acknowledge Indigenous Peoples, they rarely grant us clear decision-making authority, defined roles, or adequate resources. Existing participation models remain restrictive, with barriers of language, location, timing, and format limiting meaningful inclusion – especially for women, youth, elders, and persons with disabilities – thereby weakening the quality of biodiversity planning. At the same time, weak recognition and implementation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, particularly land rights, undermine effective delivery, monitoring, and accountability of the KMGBF.

Evidence shows that Indigenous-led approaches better align with KMGBF principles and strengthen outcomes, but they require formal recognition, power-sharing, and direct financing to be sustained and scaled.

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