Chad
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an environmental activist and member of Chad’s pastoralist Mbororo people. She is dedicated to the protection of all Indigenous peoples and to the value of their traditional knowledge in the fight against climate change and biodiversity protection.
She began advocating for Indigenous rights and environmental protection at age 16, founding the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) to introduce new income revenue activities and collaborative tools such as 3D participatory mapping to build sustainable ecosystems management and reduction of nature-based resource conflicts. She is a member of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee and serves as co-chair of the Facilitative Working Group of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the UNFCCC. She also serves as a UN Sustainable Development Goal Advocate, Vice Chair of the Global Forest Coalition, Conservation International Board Member, and Earthshot Prize Council Member. Ibrahim’s work with indigenous communities at the local and global level has achieved broad recognition and support including, the 2021 Rolex Award for Enterprise; the 2020 Refugee International’s Holbrooke Award; the 2019 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and the Daniel Mitterrand Prize.
The world’s indigenous peoples have been living in harmony with nature for centuries. They still sustain many of the healthiest ecosystems on Earth. It is time for all sectors of society to recognize the value of collaborative, science and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples to solving global threats. That’s why I am excited to join WBA to help advance transformative benchmarks to ensure that businesses integrate the value of our relationship with nature into their decision making to save ourselves and the planet.