IUCN Director General’s statement on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2026

In different parts of the world, Indigenous midwives cultivate herbal gardens and collect medicinal plants from community forests to support women in labour and aid postpartum recovery – practices that require spiritual knowledge and a deep understanding of plant properties and lifecycles.

Indigenous midwifery is a rich body of practices, lived and transmitted by Indigenous women, that safeguard the continuity of Indigenous life and well-being. It is deeply connected to conservation because it reflects a holistic way of understanding and nurturing life, in which the well-being of people and nature is one and the same.

The same ancestral knowledge that guides midwives’ traditions also manifests in the way Indigenous Peoples care for lands, waters, forests and all their relations. Caring for a woman in labour, caring for a child and caring for nature are all practices rooted in the same worldview and values of respect, reciprocity, responsibility and balance.

Our Union has long championed global policies, frameworks and processes that recognise the intrinsic value and irreplaceable role of Indigenous knowledge. This commitment spans decades of IUCN efforts on the ground and with communities, as well as IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations, and was further reinforced at the 2025 World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, which saw the adoption of new Resolutions on Indigenous leadership and the sacred; Indigenous languages, traditional knowledge and cultural heritage; and the concept of restorative justice.

Let us recall that Indigenous Peoples are essential in achieving the global goals on nature that humanity has set itself. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework recognises Indigenous and Traditional Territories as a “third pathway” to achieving its target of effectively conserving at least 30% of the Earth’s land, water and seas by 2030 – alongside protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. Reaching this target will require far greater engagement and stronger recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ contributions and rights.

IUCN is working closely with the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity and our Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Members through the Podong Initiative to support more countries in formally recognising the critical roles, rights and contributions of Indigenous Peoples in conserving biodiversity and embedding these into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. 

Today, as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples around the world, it is vital to secure their rights to land, territories and resources; to provide direct financing to their efforts to protect nature; and to ensure that the benefits arising from the use of their traditional knowledge, based on their free, prior and informed consent, are shared fairly and equitably with communities. We know that Indigenous Peoples have sustained ways of caring for nature and people for countless generations, and it is time to recognise, respect and support their efforts and their self-determination.

IUCN calls on the global community to join us in recognising and protecting Indigenous knowledge systems while embracing customary Indigenous practices. Indigenous Peoples must be recognised and respected as central actors in biodiversity conservation and well-being of people, with midwives serving as powerful examples of how traditional knowledge can be applied, preserved and passed on across generations.