“80% of the world’s biodiversity is found on Indigenous territories.”
If that sentence sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been widely repeated since a 2008 World Bank report—but how accurate is it really?

To unpack the truth behind this claim, I’m joined by Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who recently co-authored a scientific paper critically examining the origins and implications of this figure.

Together, we explore what current research really says about the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity, how Indigenous knowledge contributes to conservation science, and why it was important to correct this claim — even if it sounds positive.

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Our conversation is based on the article “ A baseless statistic could harm the Indigenous Peoples it is meant to support” (Fernández-Llamazares et al., 2024)