Davos 2025: Meet the Indigenous leaders attending the Annual Meeting

Jan 21, 2025

With less than five years to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development targets, private and public stakeholders alike are increasingly recognizing the indispensable role of Indigenous peoples in shaping best practices for business and policy making.

From their leadership in international negotiations and technology innovations to their stewardship of the planet’s most biodiverse regions, Indigenous communities are driving forward solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges and creating an equitable pathway to a Just Transition.

Despite only accounting for 6% of the global population, Indigenous Peoples and local communities protect an estimated 50% of the world’s land and more than a third of its biodiversity-rich areas. Moreover, their practices for protecting ecosystems remain unparalleled, with Indigenous-led initiatives outperforming global averages in preserving critical habitats.

Indigenous communities are also at the forefront of climate action on the international stage. At COP29 in Baku, Indigenous leaders urged governments to uphold equitable climate action and include Indigenous peoples in climate funding, emphasizing their vital contributions. Meanwhile, at COP16 in Cali, a new permanent subsidiary body under Article 8(j) of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, cementing Indigenous knowledge and leadership in global biodiversity policies.

In the past year, the role and rights of Indigenous peoples in a Just Transition have also been a key point of discussion. With 54% of energy transition mineral projects on or near Indigenous lands, essential for renewable energy technologies like solar panels and batteries, Indigenous leaders are increasingly pushing for frameworks that ensure resource extraction does not undermine their ecosystems or rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

At the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Davos, Indigenous experts and representatives from around the world will come together to continue these important conversations and present their unrivaled knowledge and leadership toward greater impact through public-private collaboration.

Here are the Indigenous leaders in attendance at Davos 2025:

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President, Association for Fulani Women and Indigenous Peoples of Chad; Global Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Africa (Chad)

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is a member of the Mbororo pastoralist people in Chad and the current President of Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT), as well as the Global Chair for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She served as an advisor for the UNFCCC at COP29 in Baku.

Ibrahim is one of the leaders of the Earthshot Prize, and is a global advocate for the greater inclusion of Indigenous people and their knowledge to fight the effects of climate change.

Watch Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim in these livestreamed
Davos sessions or in person:

Sustainable Development
Pathways for Resource-
Rich Lands, Wednesday 23,
07h30 – 09h00 CET

Open Forum: Making the
Case for Nature, Thursday
23, 9h30 – 10h45 CET

Fany Kuiru, General Coordinator, Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin, LATAM (Ecuador)

Fany Kuiru is the first female General Coordinator of Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA).

She is the highest-level Indigenous representative for the Amazon and leads one of the world’s largest Indigenous organizations, representing more than 500 Indigenous people from 9 Amazonian countries. She is a key voice on Latin American, Indigenous rights, deforestation and climate change. She has also made significant contributions to women’s rights, notably advising on the Program for the Protection of the Rights of Women Victims of Forced Displacement and at Risk.

Kuiru has a Master’s degree in political and international studies from the Universidad del Rosario, a specialization in Senior State Management from the School of Public Administration and a law degree from Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino.

Watch Fany Kuiru in this in-
person Davos session:

Sustainable Finance and
investment for the Amazon,
Tuesday 21, 15h00 – 16h15
CET

Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Munoz, Coordinator, Earth Elders and Otomi-Toltec Regional Council, LATAM (Mexico)

NT4