The International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2024: Honoring Indigenous Resilience and Legacy

"The wind does not break the tree that knows how to bend."

When a Category 5 hurricane hit the Caribbean Coast, multiple Indigenous communities were destroyed. A Miskitu Indigenous leader recounts: “All I could see were fragments of what were once our homes, reduced to tiny pieces of wood.” 

This leader remembers witnessing firsthand the devastation and its aftermath. Yet, thanks to Indigenous knowledge and the community’s well-managed emergency protocols, not a single human life was lost. “The community had their own ways to predict the arrival of the hurricane, including the unusual behavior of the fish and the arrival of different colored species that were not normally there.” 

With traditional knowledge and keen awareness of their ecosystems, the Miskitu leaders were able to support their people to prepare accordingly and save lives. “Traditional knowledge was used to trigger community protocols,” the leader says. The community leaders sent the women and children to the mangroves prior to the hurricane’s landing and had them lie down in canoes secured to the mangrove roots. The men stayed behind to protect the little that could be salvaged, tying themselves to palm trees to withstand the winds. These practices allowed them to resist the hurricane winds and not be carried away as it passed. Fundamental for rebuilding was the employment of cultural practices of communal work and values of solidarity and reciprocity. Ethno-engineering, employed by Indigenous Peoples throughout the world, also allowed for rapid reconstruction of homes using local materials and designs best suited for the geographical and cultural contexts.  

Indigenous Peoples around the world have long been resilient stewards of the Earth's natural resources, preserving their unique cultures and ways of life despite enduring centuries of displacement and dispossession. Their spiritual relationship with their land and natural resources has positioned Indigenous Peoples as one of the world’s primary custodians of biodiversity and carbon stocks. According to Garnett et al. (2018), Indigenous Peoples manage or hold tenure rights to 28 percent of the world’s surface accounting for about 40 percent of Earth’s terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes. Within these lands, 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity can be found. At the same time, World Wide Fund et al (2021) found that within Indigenous and local community lands, 65 percent of lands remain untouched, and 90 percent are in good or moderate ecological condition.

Transferred across multiple generations, Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs have been identified by global Indigenous leaders as critical for their resilience. A new World Bank study gathered experiences, evidence and stories from diverse Indigenous cultures across 16 countries and three continents to understand the key drivers and enablers of Indigenous Peoples’ remarkable resilience. Other drivers identified include: (i) secure access and tenure over lands, territories, and natural resources; (ii) Indigenous governance systems and institutions; and (iii) Indigenous food systems, livelihoods, and economies. The study’s results were used to develop a comprehensive Resilience Framework that articulates cross-cutting principles, internal drivers and external enablers that are fundamental for Indigenous Peoples’ resilience to climate and other external shocks. 

Even though Indigenous Peoples have done little to contribute to climate change, they have been disproportionately impacted by its effects.

This is primarily due to Indigenous Peoples’ close interdependence with nature, the geographical spaces where they live, and their often-limited access to services and infrastructure. The increasing frequency and severity of climate impacts on Indigenous Peoples makes the urgency of bolstering their resilience even more acute. Where Indigenous Peoples’ unique knowledge and experience with the natural environment has demonstrated important results for climate mitigation, it could also inform broader strategies for climate adaptation and resilience. 

To promote Indigenous Peoples’ resilience, the Framework seeks to inform sectoral policies and programs that could directly or indirectly bolster or undermine the drivers and enablers of Indigenous Peoples’ resilience. The Framework is timely as it serves as a practical guide on how to advance, in the case of Indigenous Peoples, the World Bank's newly adopted commitment to support “Resilient Populations”, as described in Outcome Area Five of the World Bank Corporate Scorecard. At the same time, the World Bank has recently heightened its commitment to sustainability goals through adding “on a livable planet” to its mission statement, which historically focused only on poverty and inequality. This shift more closely aligns the World Bank with Indigenous Peoples’ world views and values. Finally, the Framework contributes a unique global public good to a development community that is increasingly recognizing Indigenous Peoples as critical partners in conserving the world’s ecosystems and addressing climate challenges.

Indigenous Peoples' longstanding resilience offers inspiration from which we can all learn. The world is at a critical moment when addressing climate change and building more resilient societies will demand diverse experience and solutions. This Indigenous Peoples' Resilience Framework moves the knowledge needle in that direction to inform collective action toward a more resilient future for all.