Right to ancestral land, one of the panels of the Skoll World Forum

Every year, world leaders, social entrepreneurs and strategic stakeholders meet at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford to share and exchange ideas and solutions for change and foster meetings with key partners in social change on a large scale. Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is the first international platform to promote solutions to the most urgent social problems.

For four days the Skoll Global Forum brought together leaders from over 80 countries, in sessions, discussions and networking spaces, with guests such as the journalist Christiane Amanpour or philanthropy expert Edgar Villanueva who exposed topics such as moral courage, the power of storytelling and the transformation of culture.

One of the panels of the event focused on one of the most effective environmental conservation strategies: supporting indigenous peoples' rights to their lands. From Farms to Forests: Land Rights as an Impact Multiplier, count with the participation of José de los Santos Sauna Limaco, Kogui Governor; Chris Jochnick, Landesa Director; Jennifer Corpuz, Coordinator of the Tebtebba Indigenous Law Program; Ralph Regenvanu, former Minister of Lands of the Republic of Vanuatu; and Francisco von Hildebrand, Director of Gaia Amazonas.

Credit: Amazon Conservation Team

Among the speeches of the panellists, it was common to hear that the Indigenous Territories achieve better results in conserving ecosystems and reducing deforestation. With the accelerated disappearance of forests, societies begin to value the work of indigenous communities in their conservation and to defend the right to own their lands.

However, in his speech, Francisco von Hildebrand pointed out that the concerns not only have to focused on the right to tenure, but also on the preservation of the cultural pillars of conservation, the knowledge and identity of indigenous peoples. That is why Gaia Amazonas proposes to replace the concept of lands by territories, since it brings together the cultural and social aspects to the land’s protection.

 Credits: Cristina Yoon 

On the other hand, for Ralph Regenvanu, who seeks to reflect the quality of life in a traditional non-economy, recognizing indigenous voices sometimes implies to question the development paradigm and to think about the decolonization of indicators that are managed globally. In fact, in the case of Vanuatu, indigenous peoples call for three indicators to be included in economic analyses: free access to land and resources, traditional knowledge and practices, and community vitality.

Credits: Cristina Yoon 

This was the first forum on Indigenous Rights and Territories held by the Skoll Foundation, which has stood out as one of the pioneers in making the importance of social entrepreneurs visible.