A/HRC/43/44 agriculture are also associated with a loss of biodiversity and land degradation in parts of tropical Asia and Central and South America. More than 25 years after the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity, scientists have reported that countries are not on track to reach targets related to ocean acidification and health, including the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 14 and Aichi Biodiversity target 11. 42. Particularly troubling is the significant increase in fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon, following the promises made by the new Government to open indigenous lands for farming and mining. The Government has cast the indigenous peoples who oppose its policy as anti-development, messaging that was similarly used by the Government of Thailand to blame indigenous people using traditional land management techniques in the face of deforestation and rising temperatures.40 43. A new Facilitative Working Group under the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform recently drafted a two-year workplan for the period 2020–2021, giving indigenous peoples greater representation in the climate change process. 41 In 2018, the Green Climate Fund adopted an indigenous peoples’ policy to ensure that indigenous peoples are recognized, respected and promoted in climate-related funding. In 2016, in resolution 33/25, the Human Rights Council amended the mandate of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to expand its capacity and impact. Those developments may help promote both the rights of indigenous peoples and protect biodiversity and ecosystem health. III. Severe food insecurity: hunger, starvation and famine A. Conflict and food crises 44. Protracted conflict, local insecurity and violence disrupt agricultural production and threaten livelihoods, accentuating negative coping strategies and deepening vulnerability to shocks (see A/72/188). On average, there are 2.5–3 times more undernourished people living in low-income countries with a protracted crisis than in other low-income countries.42 Those who rely directly on the agricultural sector for their food and livelihood are particularly vulnerable and inequalities based on gender, age, location, race, ethnicity and migration status are accentuated. Conflict also drives migration, generating 70.8 million refugees and internally displaced persons by the end of 2018.43 45. During the course of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate, the worst food crises have occurred in areas of active conflict, with over 113 million people affected in 2018.44 Crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, northern Nigeria, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen account for two thirds of acute global food insecurity. In Yemen, for example, the World Food Programme has launched its largest ever emergency response as a result of the country’s ongoing civil war. However, 15.9 million people are experiencing hunger each day and this number could reach 20 million if humanitarian assistance is not delivered.45 The conflict has pushed 9.65 million people into an emergency situation and internally displaced another 3.6 million as of August 2019.46 Meanwhile, attacks on civilians continue. 46. In South Sudan, 1 million people have been declared food insecure as of January 2018 – a 40 per cent increase since the same time the previous year. The country has suffered from famine conditions and overall more than 7 million people will require food 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Ibid. See United Nations Climate Change News “Indigenous peoples obtain stronger voice in climate action” (1 July 2019). See FAO, The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges (Rome, 2017), p. xi. See http://ida.worldbank.org/theme/conflict-and-fragility. See FAO and others, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019, p. 59. See World Food Programme (WFP), “Yemen emergency”, available from www.wfp.org/emergencies/yemen-emergency. Ibid. 11