A statement by mr. Hugo Jabini, Goldman Environmental Prize Winner & Saamaka Leader. This statement was delivered at the COP17, in Amenia.

Excellencies, delegates, allies, and global leaders,

I stand before you today not only as a Goldman Environmental Prize winner, but as a son of the Saamaka Tribal people, born from ancestors who fought for their freedom and built their lives in harmony with the living forest. For centuries, Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant tribal communities have stood as the frontline guardians of the world’s most crucial ecosystems. We do not merely live alongside nature; we are the forest, and the forest is us.

Yet, conference after conference, COP after COP, world leaders gather to sign declarations, set distant climate targets, and pledge financial funds. Meanwhile, on the ground in our territories, logging trucks continue to roll, mining concessions swallow our ancestral lands, and our legally binding rights remain ignored. Let me be unequivocally clear: The era of empty promises and performative commitments is over.

Biodiversity cannot be saved with pledges on paper while those who physically protect it are stripped of their land rights, criminalized, or forced to watch their territories destroyed by state-sanctioned extraction. Nearly two decades ago, the landmark Saamaka People vs. Suriname ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights affirmed our collective ownership of our customary lands. That verdict proved what science now continuously confirms: the most effective way to preserve biodiversity and combat climate collapse is to legally secure the land rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

Photo:  Presentation at COP17 for Greenpeace

At this COP17, we do not come asking for charity or empty praise. We demand real, accountable, and immediate action:

• Full Legal Territorial Recognition: Governments must legally recognize, title, and enforce the ancestral land rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant tribal communities.
• Direct Funding for Forest Guardians: Climate and biodiversity financing must bypass bureaucratic bottlenecks and go directly to the Indigenous and tribal institutions effectively safeguarding these ecosystems on the ground.
• Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC): Stop granting extractive concessions over traditional territories without the explicit consent and self-determined management of local rights-holders.
• An End to Impunity: Enforce real accountability for corporate and state actors that violate land rights and destroy critical biological reserves.

Our ancestors bled for the freedom to govern our territories. Today, we stand firm to protect the very breath of this planet. Do not tell us you care about biodiversity if you do not respect the rights of the people who keep it alive.

The time for speeches has expired. The time for action is now. Respect our rights. Title our lands. Protect our forests.