Six Indigenous leaders — from the Amazon to West Kalimantan — are the world's first Primary Forest Ambassadors

At the biodiversity COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia, the International Union for Conservation of Nature named six Indigenous leaders as the first-ever Indigenous Peoples Ambassadors for Primary Forests: Puyr dos Santos Tembé of Brazil's Alto Rio Guamá territory, Julio Cusurichi Palacios of the Peruvian Amazon, Joseph Itongwa Miukumo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maimuna Jawara of The Gambia, Herkulanus Sutomo Manna of Indonesia and Pirawan Wongnithisathaporn of Thailand. The initiative, funded by the Global Environment Facility, recognises the people who have kept ancient forests standing for generations. 'If the world wants to protect the primary forests that remain, it is Indigenous communities who have lived alongside them and protected them all along,' said Manna.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program