The Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund (IMC Fund) respectfully submits this statement to emphasize the vital role of Indigenous spiritual medicines, practices, and knowledge systems in global climate action.
Indigenous Peoples have long understood the Rights of Nature and that the health of the Earth is inseparable from the spiritual relationships that sustain it. Sacred medicines and ceremonial practices connect people to land, water, and forest. They are systems of ecological governance and care that regulate balance, sustain biodiversity, and renew community well-being. These heritage molecules and tangible and intangible cultural assets protected under WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge represent environmental ethics, regulate community relationships with ecosystems, and sustain biodiversity through intergenerational knowledge transmission and reciprocity.
Despite the growing recognition of Indigenous knowledge in international frameworks, the spiritual foundations of these systems remain largely absent from climate policy and funding mechanisms. When spirituality is overlooked, the relational ethics and practices that make conservation effective are weakened. Protecting land without protecting the spirit that guides its care is an incomplete form of conservation.
The IMC Fund calls for the inclusion of Indigenous spirituality and spiritual medicines in climate mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity strategies. This recognition is not only a matter of cultural respect but of ecological necessity. Ceremonial and healing practices embody the values—reciprocity, responsibility, and reverence—that are essential to restoring planetary balance.
We therefore urge Parties to the UNFCCC and relevant bodies to:
Acknowledge Indigenous spiritual medicines and practices as integral to Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems and climate resilience strategies.
Ensure special protections for the territories, species, and cultural protocols associated with Indigenous spiritual medicines and other spiritual practices.
Support Indigenous-led governance that upholds ceremonial ethics, traditional authority, and community consent in decisions affecting sacred sites and medicine territories.
Include Indigenous spiritual leaders, healers, and knowledge holders as key participants in the design and implementation of climate policies and programs.
Co-define spiritual indicators with Indigenous peoples for monitoring frameworks. These must reflect cultural continuity, spiritual governance of territory, and intergenerational transmission of traditional knowledge.
Through our partnerships, the IMC Fund has witnessed that when Indigenous Peoples lead conservation from within their own spiritual and ecological frameworks, both ecosystems and communities are strengthened. Healing the land and healing the people are one and the same.
As the world advances toward renewed climate commitments, it is imperative that sustainability frameworks move beyond technical approaches to embrace relational ones. Protecting spiritual medicines and ceremonial lifeways is an act of climate restoration. Recognizing these spiritual ecologies allows for a more holistic, ethical, and enduring response to the planetary crisis.