“Protecting Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural expressions as effective levers for sustainable development in Suriname”

Indigenous women also are the educators among many of their peoples, transmitting resource and territory sustainable management knowledge, cultural heritage, and their languages. Language is a key element when implementing literacy programs or designing an educational curriculum. We need to understand and expand our education system to include more Indigenous knowledge that cares for the planet.

We also need to invest more in education in Indigenous communities by developing appropriate curricula and inclusive teaching methodologies that meet their specific needs. Indeed, there is a general lack of disaggregated data, admittedly indigenous peoples, especially women, suffer the highest illiteracy rate1 in the population. This has dramatic consequences since it leads to a lack of opportunities in the labour market, limited personal development possibilities, and high levels of rural-urban shift, where they face low wages and discrimination.

In most cases, indigenous women are the primary conduit through which the younger generation learns and perpetuates Indigenous languages. Despite accounting for only 6.2 percent of the world’s population, indigenous peoples are the custodians of 4,000 languages. These languages are part of our common human heritage, which we must preserve and cherish. This is why UNESCO, as the lead agency of the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages, which runs from 2022 to 2032, is working to address the critical status of many indigenous languages around the world, and encourage their preservation, revitalization, transmission and promotion among youth.

The link between indigenous knowledge systems, natural sciences and social sciences and policy-making is a key priority for UNESCO in Suriname, Guyana, Belize and the indigenous peoples' landscape of the Caribbean.

For example, the UNESCO project "Strengthening the Capacities of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Suriname to Implement the 2003 Convention for the

Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage" deepened dialogue on the relevance and importance of documenting and protecting the intangible heritage of these territories through youth and community-based approaches. The project highlighted the importance of recognizing and identifying living heritage through community-based inventories and developing strategies to pass it on sustainably with the authoritative and full participation of local communities. Strengthening international South-South cooperation through the development and implementation of joint agreements and strategies (Willemstad Declaration) was also one of the main outcomes of the project. Finally, Suriname ratified the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage during the project.

Just last month, UNESCO visited Suriname's World Heritage Sites to advise national and local stakeholders on the development of a national strategy for sustainable tourism. On this occasion, UNESCO participated in a traditional meeting, called the Krutu, of the Kwinti tribe -- one of the six indigenous and Maroon communities in Suriname to address the challenges of the Central Suriname Nature Reserve and on ways to develop sustainable tourism strategies and sustainability practices.

UNESCO is also developing a trialogue series to mobilize all relevant stakeholders and expand the Indigenous Knowledge-Environmental Sciences-Policy Making interface in the Caribbean. Indeed, we believe it is one of the drivers for leveraging the value of indigenous knowledge in addressing environmental and societal issues, and in complementing the traditional scientific knowledge system. In Suriname, Guyana and Belize, biodiversity and the related ecosystem services are important catalyzers for climate adaptation and regulation, land and forest preservation, provisioning of freshwater resources and disaster risk resilience. Indigenous knowledge systems can help in transitioning towards community-based sustainable green and blue economies in these countries.

Indigenous peoples’ issues are an integral part of global concerns. Therefore, we must rally as one humanity for the full participation and enjoyment of Indigenous peoples’ rights, their knowledge systems, languages and cultural riches, through innovative and creative exchanges, in the global endeavor to find sustainable pathways for the living world, for society and for humanity as a whole.