At COP17, a Gunadule theologian calls three crises one wound

At COP17, a Gunadule theologian calls three crises one wound

valter

Tue, 10/27/2026 - 11:04

Three UN conferences meet in 2026 on three crises: desertification, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Jocabed Solano, an Indigenous Gunadule theologian from Panama, does not see three. "The world calls these climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification, but for us they are one wound," she said in Yerevan, Armenia, on 20 October.

Image

Indigenous people at the Biodiversity COP17 in and Yerevan, Armenia.

Photo: Athena Peralta/WCC

She was speaking at the Faith Hub, a space for faith groups at the UN biodiversity conference, COP17. With two young Indigenous church members from Finland and Bolivia, she spoke about the land behind all three negotiations, and who should care for it.

Solano comes from Guna Yala, the Gunadule territory in Panama. "Nabgwana, our Mother Earth, does not live in three pieces. In Guna Yala, families from Cartí Sugdupu have already left their island, because Grandmother Sea is asking for what is hers," she said. "If Nabgwana is one, the three COPs must stop walking apart. We do not own…