Enhancing meaningful Indigenous leadership and collaboration in international environmental governance forums

This is the first global empirical study that specifically explores the perspectives of Indigenous peoples, people working for Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations (IPOs) and people working in other relevant roles (e.g., conveners of large environmental NGOs) on the barriers to meaningful and effective participation in global environmental governance forums. A total of 30 key informant participants were interviewed for this study. Participants were invited based on their engagement with and/or their interest in Indigenous participation and leadership related to environmental governance. Inductive analysis of the interview data revealed that ‘capacity barriers’, ‘representation, grouping and disconnect’, ‘inclusion and exclusion’, and ‘insights for how to proceed in the future’ to be important primary themes for discussion. Secondary themes were also determined for each primary theme to highlight the key issues and to develop implications and recommendations for enhancing meaningful Indigenous leadership and collaboration in international governance forums. • Access to international forums is a major obstacle for effective participation of Indigenous peoples. • Indigenous perspectives, experiences, and knowledge were often excluded in international forums. • The importance of youth and intergenerational knowledge sharing was highlighted by participants. • Targeting participation from various genders, youth, and equity-deserving groups can increase diversity. • Indigenous representation in specific international environmental governance forums is needed.