This panel will explore best practices in accelerating and financing indigenous businesses rooted in strong racial, social and environmental justice to conserve the world’s natural resources. From coffee and cacao, to eco-tourism, nuts, seeds, plants for medicinal or cosmetic uses, as well as fisheries, indigenous businesses are innovating to transform, in a sustainable way, local resources into value-added products highly-sought by global consumers.
Since the UN Decade’s strategy seeks to build the capacity of indigenous and traditional peoples encouraging a new brand of entrepreneurship rooted in preserving biodiversity, fighting poverty, and generating the necessary resources to invest in local monitoring and surveillance efforts of territories and reserves is a requirement to meet climate change targets by 2050.
The panel will present case studies of successful indigenous businesses financed by accelerators and impact investors, including innovative governance models inclusive of indigenous people’s priorities and world view.
The session will also make recommendations for improving the flow of capital to a growing indigenous economy, and how ecosystem actors (impact investors, capacity builders, researchers, and funders) can play a great role in advancing the sector.
