Reflections from IUCN 2025: Why sustainable conservation means shifting power to communities

Our work at RECOFTC is grounded in the principle that effective, sustainable conservation must be community-led. Earlier this month, I had the honour of representing the organization and sharing insights that are core to our mission at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025, which took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 9 to 15 October.

The world’s largest and most important gathering for conservation, this congress brings together thousands of scientists, Indigenous peoples, governments and leaders to set the global environmental agenda once every four years. For RECOFTC, it is a critical opportunity to help influence global policy and ensure that the people-centred approaches we champion are central to global conservation strategies.

At this year’s congress, I was able to share on-the-ground examples of this principle in action, drawing from my parallel work with the Salumayag Youth Collective for Forests, of which I am co-founder. The lessons from this community-based initiative – which works with Indigenous youth, women and farmers in Mindanao, the Philippines, on forest and food system restoration – also illustrate the community-centred approach RECOFTC advocates for on the global stage.

Bridging Indigenous wisdom and climate science

I was invited to share reflections from Mindanao and the Manobo-Kulamanen community at the ‘Nature’s promise for climate and people’ event on 10 October. For us, environmental education is part of culture. Our elders teach us to identify the stages of forest recovery by the specific plants and animals that signal each phase. This knowledge directly guides how we restore degraded landscapes through assisted natural regeneration.

I highlighted the importance of our libulung, sacred spaces for dialogue where elders and youth come together to share observations and learn how to 'read the forest.' These enduring practices are a testament that Indigenous knowledge is science, built on generations of experimentation and careful attention to the natural world. In Mindanao, protecting forests has been most effective when scientific knowledge and traditional wisdom meet and guide each other.

Regenerative agriculture as ancestral practise

On 11 October, I joined a farmers’ dialogue following the screening of Common ground, a documentary about farmers practising regenerative agriculture to heal soil, improve biodiversity and address climate change. Following the screening, practitioners and farmers – including Indigenous and family farmers – shared their experiences with regenerative agriculture as practised by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Among the Manobo-Kulamanen, farming is guided by deep kinship with the land. Practices such as pangak-at (collective farming) and pangalawat (sharing crops) reflect a deep reciprocity that sustains soil health. These traditions, along with rituals of thanksgiving and permission to the guardian spirits of land and water, inform every planting cycle. They have long sustained soil health, biodiversity and community harmony.

As these practices are increasingly threatened by impacts of modern, extractive expansive agriculture, Indigenous youth are stepping up. Using digital storytelling to document ancestral practices, experimenting with organic methods and mobilizing community action, Indigenous youth are bridging tradition and technology, proving that cultural knowledge can thrive in the modern world while upholding their Indigenous identities as stewards of the land.

Restoring forests by securing food

In the uplands of Bukidnon, Northern Mindannao, decades of logging and corporate-controlled agriculture had converted thousands of hectares of natural forest into grasslands and monocrop plantations, feeding markets but not people. During ‘The balancing act’ dialogue on 12 October, I shared the Salumayag Youth Collective for Forests’ experience balancing forest restoration with food sovereignty in these uplands.

The starting point was seeds, particularly heirloom varieties central to local food culture, from which the Bukidnon Seed Stewards Project was born. Through community dialogues, participatory action research and seed-saving trainings, the community seed bank currently safeguards over 200 heirloom and local varieties of staple and wild foods that are climate-resilient as well as culturally and medicinally important.

True inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and youth in global food, water and climate governance requires that our voices are heard, respected and centred in decision-making. We must have access to meaningful spaces of influence at all levels, and Indigenous youth and leaders must be equipped with the resources to fully participate. Indigenous knowledge has to be integrated with scientific data into policies and programmes and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and control over land and resources must be safeguarded.

Rethinking regenerative: Co-creating a common framework

I also joined a panel discussion on October 12, where we discussed how global frameworks, like the one being developed by Regen10, can support an inclusive, regenerative and equitable food systems transition, which respects and centres Indigenous knowledge and local systems.

Any such framework must begin with listening and be guided by reciprocity. Centring lived realities means grounding outcomes in how farmers and Indigenous Peoples define concepts like ‘healthy soil’ and ‘resilient community’. Embracing plurality and context allows for multiple ways of knowing and measuring progress rather than imposing uniform indicators. Similarly, bridging global ambition and local power ensures that local actors are co-creators and decision-makers.

Key takeaways for our work

The ‘Reimagining conservation’ pavilion hosted one of the most powerful sessions I attended. It explored what a transfer of power in conservation could look like.

Panellists described the common challenges communities face when external organizations dominate local decision-making. Well-intentioned programmes can inadvertently co-opt communities, fragment leadership and create dependency on non-governmental organizations, which often undermines long-term resilience.

Addressing these internal challenges requires reflection on the role and purpose of conservation interventions, ensuring they work with rather than control Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

In this and across other sessions, three messages emerged that specifically reaffirm the strategic direction of RECOFTC’s work. The first, regeneration begins with local wisdom, and global frameworks must learn from the ground up. The second, inclusion means shifting power and ensuring communities have genuine decision-making authority to meaningfully participate. The third, lasting solutions must bridge global ambition with local realities.

The future of forests, food systems and climate action rests on partnerships that value local knowledge, empower communities, and align global ambition with lived realities. And as the world prepares for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil this November, local experiences show what climate action looks like on the ground: rooted in culture, led by communities, and sustained by long-term care for the land.

As well as being carbon sinks, forests are archives of memory, resilience and renewal. Bringing these stories to Belem will call for a climate agenda that values both nature and people. By centring Indigenous wisdom and youth leadership, we can cultivate regenerative solutions that are sustainable, equitable, resilient and deeply rooted in the people and landscapes they aim to serve.

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Gloria Amor Paredes is e-learning and training officer at RECOFTC.