Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems by UN News, FAO, IWGIA, Greenpeace   Oct. 2026   Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems - report of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security.   The report on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems examines how these systems sustain nutrition, biodiversity, livelihoods and cultural continuity, and the pressures threatening their future. Its analysis connects food with territorial rights, customary governance and the transmission of knowledge across generations.   The report identifies three objectives: preserving functioning systems, restoring those under pressure or disruption, and identifying lessons for the transformation of other food systems. It emphasizes Indigenous Peoples’ agency and the recognition of their knowledge systems as valid in their own terms, independent of and complementary to scientific knowledge.   http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/publications/hlpe-21   * World Food Forum: Indigenous Youth Roundtable:   http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1s/k1sahkwc9q   Aug. 2026   Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights for Climate Resilience. (IWGIA)   Across Africa, climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is a present and escalating crisis. For many Indigenous Peoples, whose identities, knowledge systems, and livelihoods are intrinsically tied to their ancestral lands and natural resources, the impacts of climate change are driving profound social and economic disruption.   This report explores how Indigenous pastoralist communities in Tanzania's Longido District strengthened their resilience to climate change by securing collective land rights. The recognition of these rights enabled stronger community governance, more effective conflict resolution, and the development of collective grazing plans:   http://www.iwgia.org/en/publications/indigenous-peoples-land-rights-for-climate-resilience   * Nepal: Daughters of Mother Earth   This photographic story brings us face to face with women and girls from the Koits-Sunuwar people of eastern Nepal. For many Sunuwar women, nature is not merely a resource. Rivers, forests, trees and mountains are regarded as living relations, to be met with care and respect. Humans do not stand apart from nature, but are part of an animate world in which all living things are interconnected.   The series was photographed in the village of Umakunda-3, Kubukasthali-Yakang, in Ramechhap District, where the effects of climate change and energy projects are felt in everyday life. Women and girls live with unpredictable rainfall, cloudbursts, landslides and floods that can sweep away fields and homes, while hydropower development along the rivers drains the landscape from within, drying up springs and streams. The loss of water, land and livelihoods rarely appears in government statistics, but lives on in the stories of women and girls:   http://www.iwgia.org/en/news/daughters-of-mother-earth   * From oceans to forests, the real solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises are led by those who live in and protect these territories. (Greenpeace International)   At a time of accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss and growing social challenges, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are leading some of the world's most effective solutions to these interconnected crises. For generations, they have sustained ways of life rooted in their territories, protecting nature, strengthening livelihoods and building resilience. Yet they continue to lack the political, financial and social support needed to scale these solutions.   This interactive map showcases community-led initiatives from around the world. Together, they demonstrate how Indigenous knowledge, local practices and community leadership can protect biodiversity while defending rights, strengthening local governance and enabling communities to thrive in harmony with nature:   http://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/gpint/solutions-storymaps/ Visit the related web page
	The mercury threat to 951 Amazon communities in three countries by Alexa Velez, Vanessa Romo, Daniela Quintero Diaz Mongabay Latam, agencies   Sep. 2026   For the first time, Mongabay Latam analyzed 39 scientific studies published between 1997 and 2024 that confirm that 249 Indigenous and riverside communities in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil have been exposed to mercury contamination.   Nearly all of them exceed the limits considered safe by the World Health Organization. The stories reported by three journalistic teams in the field reveal the impact on schools, breastfeeding mothers and numerous Indigenous communities.   Mongabay Latam followed the trail of mercury along 2,763 kilometers of three Amazonian rivers: the Madre de Dios (Peru), Beni (Bolivia) and Madeira (Brazil).   The analysis by Mongabay Latam reveals that another 702 communities located less than two kilometers from the rivers analyzed are at risk and could be living the same situation, but remain uncertain because no assessments have been carried out.   “I had some tests done on my little daughter Bayolet when she was 5 years old. She had already fainted twice at school and we didn’t know why,” says Gladys Ordonez, a resident of the Indigenous community of Shintuya, in the Peruvian Amazon.   A few kilometers beyond Shintuya, navigating the Madeira River, lies the Karipuna territory in Brazil. There, Adriano Karipuna, the community leader, tells a similar story. “The children are born with problems, with heart condition … There are young people and teenagers who already have trouble breathing.”   The same scenario is repeated in the Bolivian Amazon. “We are tired of asking for medical assistance,” says Limberth Miquere, the corregidor (local Indigenous community leader) of the community of Buena Vista.   These voices of desperation come from men and women living along the Madeira (Brazil), Beni (Bolivia) and Madre de Dios (Peru) rivers in the Amazon, testimonies inevitably marked by one word: Mercury. “I don’t know if my husband is sick or if I am. Who can explain that to us?” asks Iris Yante, a mother of three from the Peruvian Amazon.   Mercury is a heavy metal used in illegal gold mining, a violent, highly profitable illicit activity that is currently booming.   In the Madre de Dios River basin, over a 27-year period (1997–2024), mining destroyed more than 95,000 hectares (234,750 acres) of forest, an area almost as large as the entire urban area of Lima, according to the MapBiomas satellite analysis platform.   A similar situation is occurring in the Beni and Madeira basins, where the devastated area exceeds 9,000 and 28,000 hectares (22,000 and 54,000 acres), respectively. And the activity is expanding daily, driven by the rising price of an ounce of gold, which surpassed $5,000 in January 2026.   As gold increases in value on the international market, violence and the deadly impact of mercury are growing in the Amazon, where forest loss is only one of the serious consequences of this activity. The impact on the health of thousands of people is undoubtedly the most harmful effect.   Mercury is used to separate gold from sediment and is dumped into rivers, irreversibly contaminating them. It contaminates the fish eaten by Indigenous communities, the water they drink and the areas where they bathe. The effects on health are devastating, ranging from memory loss and headaches to damage to the central nervous system.   The testimonies of Gladys, Iris, Adriano and Limberth, gathered in communities along the three Amazonian rivers by Mongabay Latam, show the helplessness of people living with ailments they cannot explain.   How widespread is mercury contamination in the Amazon? How many communities and residents have become victims of its impact?   Despite the severity of the situation, no regional studies have been conducted to fully understand the scale of this enormous environmental and public health problem. What does exist are scattered studies conducted in some communities in the Amazon basin of these three countries.   To put a number on this problem and close this information gap, Mongabay Latam reviewed 39 scientific studies published between 1997 and 2024, which include measurements of mercury levels in people living along 2,763 kilometers (1,717 miles) of the Madeira, Beni and Madre de Dios rivers, as well as in the fish consumed there.   This work involved processing different datasets and methodologies, as well as standardizing measurements to clearly establish the impact and obtain a comprehensive picture of the situation.   The result is a database containing 7,725 mercury samples from people and 5,939 fish tissue samples extracted from these publications, which involved at least 130 scientists.   This analysis — conducted with the support and guidance of the Amazonian Scientific Innovation Center (CINCIA), affiliated with Wake Forest University in the U.S. — traces the path of contamination along three emblematic Amazonian rivers that are hydrologically connected and that carry mercury into the lives of hundreds of families.   The data analyzed is clear: At least 249 communities have been exposed to mercury over the past two decades. Of these, 220 — 88% — have levels of the heavy metal far above those considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).   But this is not the worst-case scenario. Mercury has spread through the currents of each river. In doing so, it has contaminated not only the 249 communities that have been sampled, but also those located downstream.   Mongabay Latam’s analysis has established that around 702 communities living along the banks of these three rivers, within a maximum distance of two kilometers (about 1 mile), and located between active illegal mining sites and contaminated communities, are at risk.   In total, 951 communities have alarming mercury levels or live in a state of vulnerability. For years, thousands of people have been living alongside a silent threat, with little or no support to protect them from its effects..   http://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2026/09/new-analysis-maps-mercury-threat-to-951-amazon-communities-in-three-countries/ http://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mercury-threatens-over-160-communities-in-bolivias-beni-river-basin/ http://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc63-states-must-protect-indigenous-territories-and-those-who-defend-our-natural-and-cultural-heritage/ http://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tight-brazil-election-challenges-fragile-gains-for-amazon-conservation/ http://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/right-wing-leaders-could-rule-95-of-the-amazon-by-2027-experts-warn/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/10/exposure-toxic-substances-form-environmental-violence-against-indigenous http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/move-beyond-managing-toxic-pollution-after-harm-has-occurred-and-focus http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-toxics-and-human-rights http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment/annual-thematic-reports Visit the related web page
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