Co-sponsored by the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE)
Indigenous peoples inhabit territories that contain over 80% of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity. However, Indigenous communities and lands are frequently under pressure from extractive interests, illegal logging or poaching and encroaching farmland. Community science has the potential for improving compliance with laws designed to protect natural resources, especially in areas where indigenous people are located. This is because Indigenous peoples often must deal with additional barriers to adequate enforcement of environmental rule of law in their territories including lack of attention from some government authorities, lack of governmental resources, or in some cases the difficulty in accessing activities on their lands.. In these circumstances, community science and monitoring tools can serve as a powerful mechanism for communities to take action when environmentally harmful activity is happening on their lands. There have been various innovations in Indigenous and remote communities where monitoring is ongoing, including community patrols and technologies that work without consistent cellular or internet services.
The fourth session of INECE’s webinar series on citizen science and environmental enforcement explores how Indigenous communities are using community science to uncover environmental injustice and improve environmental protection on their lands.
Speakers:
LeRoy Paddock, Visiting Scholar, ELI; Managing Director, INECE Secretariat (Moderator)
Tom Bewick, Peru Country Director, Rainforest Foundation US
Ruth Noguerón, Senior Associate, World Resources Institute
Ellen Pfeiffer, Researcher in Citizen Science, UN IHE