Recognising and Supporting Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

Recognising and Supporting Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities is a new Publication to be released at CBD’s 11th Conference of Parties (Oct 8-19th) in Hyderabad, India

Published by the CBD Secretariat, based on a study undertaken by the ICCA Consortium, coordinated by the Indian NGO Kalpavriksh

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) contain significant levels of biodiversity and related cultural diversity. This publication provides details of the range, extent and values of such sites, the threats they face, and the efforts being made by governments and civil society at recognizing and supporting them. Drawing lessons from 19 country case studies (covering all continents), and a range of other documentation, it offers lessons on how best to provide recognition to ICCAs.

The knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities have contributed greatly to conservation of ecosystem, species, and genetic diversity. It is likely that as much of the world’s area as is under officially designated protected areas (about 13%), if not more, is under ICCAs.

In 2010, at the 10th Conference of Parties to the CBD (Nagoya, Japan), governments committed to a Strategic Plan on Biodiversity 2012-20. This included a set of 20 targets (‘Aichi Targets’), covering aspects such as integrating biodiversity into economic development, enhancing the coverage of protected areas and other forms of effective conservation, alleviating poverty and providing secure livelihoods.

This publication shows how ICCAs can help all countries to meet many of these targets, including Target 11 of expanding global protected area coverage to 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas. ICCAs can also help meet commitments under other global agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This publication stresses that, in order to maintain and enhance the values of ICCAs, indigenous peoples and local communities governing them need adequate and appropriate recognition, including:

• Clear rights to territories and natural resources, in both terrestrial and marine areas 
• Recognition of their institutions of collective governance 
• Rights to exclude destructive activities like mining
• Respect of diverse cultures, lifestyles, economic systems 
• Recognition of ICCAs as protected areas or other effective conservation areas 

The publication shows that several countries are moving substantially in these directions. For instance, in Australia, Indigenous Protected Areas make up about 30% of the official protected area estate, while in the Philippines legislation relating to ancestral domain rights is providing backing to indigenous peoples in their efforts to conserve and sustainable manage their territories. However, many countries are still weak in their recognition of indigenous peoples and local communities in general, and of ICCAs in particular. In most, serious threats from extractive industries and large infrastructure projects, imposition of inappropriate land uses, and lack of recognition are the key challenge.

Global cooperation is needed to enable all countries achieve recognition of ICCAs, to enhance their contribution to conservation, livelihood security, and cultural sustenance. The publication provides pointers on how this can be done through legal, administrative, social, financial, advocacy, networking and other forms of recognition and support.

Citation: Kothari, Ashish with Corrigan, Colleen, Jonas, Harry, Neumann, Aurelie, and Shrumm, Holly. (eds). 2012. Recognising and Supporting Territories and Areas Conserved By Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities: Global Overview and National Case Studies. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, ICCA Consortium, Kalpavriksh, and Natural Justice, Montreal, Canada. Technical Series no. 64, 160 pp.

For further details, contact Ashish Kothari.

Localisation, Participation and Communication: an Introduction to Good PGIS Practice

Localisation, Participation and Communication: an Introduction to Good PGIS Practice from Giacomo Rambaldi on Vimeo.

This 25-min educational video documentary introduces the practice of participatory spatial information management and communication (PGIS) in the development context. It has been designed to introduce development practitioners (technology intermediaries) to the practice of demand-driven PGIS.

In this video, PGIS practice is presented as a continuum starting from community mobilisation to project planning and design, choice of mapping methods and technologies, visualisation of different technologies in diverse ethno-cultural and agro-ecological environments, and finally putting the maps to work in the domains of identity building, self-determination, spatial planning and advocacy.

Ethics and sound attitudes and behaviours are emphasized as cross-cutting imperatives.

French | Spanish | Portuguese

ILO Convention on indigenous and tribal peoples: a manual

This is an easy-to-use manual to ILO Convention No. 169. It helps to understand the Convention, and how it can be used to gain recognition, promotion and protection of indigenous and tribal peoples' rights.
The manual - dated 2003 - does not explain each article of the Convention. It focuses on key concepts such as, for example, human rights, culture,land, development, education and health.
Nor does it strictly follow the structure of the Convention. It is divided into different sections. Each section deals with a key concept.
For easy reference, the manual has included the article or articles of the Convention which are being discussed. There is a descriptive explanation of each article. Concepts are introduced by using examples and experiences from indigenous and tribal peoples. This is to demonstrate the articles of the Convention in a practical way. ILO also included diagrams and photographs which highlight and explain some important elements of the articles.

Ogiek Indigenous Peoples Mapping their Lands

Julius Muchemi, Executive Director of ERMIS Africa, an NGO based in Kenya, reports on a Participatory 3D Modelling exercise which occurred in Nessuit, Kenya in August 2006. In the course of the exercise - attended by representatives from 21 Ogiek clans - an area of 52,800 ha was mapped at a scale 1:10,000. participants included close to 120 representatives from the different clans, men and women. Elders populated the model with their memories dating back to 1925 and reconstructed the landscape as it was at that time. The model displays 64 data layers including different types of areas, points and lines. In 2008 the Ogiek people expanded the coverage of the model to include further 40,000 ha.

Read more ...

Report on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples in Kenya

I have just come across the report prepared in December 2006 by the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people in Kenya. Considering the current situation in Mau, I thought that it would be worth adding visibility to this public document.

I am quoting part of the text and offer a link to the full document at the bottom of this post.

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C. Hunter-gatherers and forest peoples

36. Settlement schemes, logging and charcoal production have put a severe strain on Kenya’s rich and varied forests, and have resulted in the loss of the traditional habitat of Kenya’s forest peoples, the indigenous hunter-gatherers such as the Awer (Boni), Ogiek, Sengwer, Watta, and Yaaku. While existing laws are oriented to the protection of wildlife and forest resources, many of these communities can no longer live by their traditional livelihoods, and their cultures and language are rapidly vanishing as a result; illegal logging has played a major role in this as well.

37. The way of life of the Ogiek is well adapted to the Mau Forest environment where they have lived for centuries. Numbering about 20,000 countrywide, they have been dispersed and assimilated in recent decades, and dispossessed of their traditional source of livelihood. When the Mau Forest was gazetted as a National Forest in 1974, the Ogiek were evicted from their traditional habitat without prior consultation or compensation, in violation of their basic human rights. They were henceforth prevented from hunting or collecting bee honey for survival in the forest, and were reduced to a miserable subsistence on the margins of this area rich in plants and wildlife. On the other hand, illegal logging, the introduction of exotic plantations and the excision of parts of the forest for private development by outside settlers have endangered the Mau Forest as a water catchment area, as well as the country’s environmental security. The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, signalled in his report on his mission to Kenya that the destruction of the forest has affected the rights of the Ogiek to housing, health, food and a safe environment, threatening to further destroy their cultural identity and the community as a whole (see E/CN.4/2005/48/Add.2, para. 61).

38. Despite a court injunction in their favour in 1997, the Government has proceeded to alienate Ogiek forest land, and a recent court decision does not recognize the Ogiek’s ancestral title to the forest. Still, the Government has distributed title deeds to land to several thousand Ogiek, and some non-Ogiek outsiders have tried to enrol as Ogieks in the hope that they may eventually also be given title deeds. The unresolved conflict between the Ogiek and their neighbours continues to this day. Being considered as squatters on their own land and legally banned from using the forest resources for their livelihood, their attempt to survive according to their traditional lifestyle and culture has often been criminalized and their repeated recourse to the courts has not been successful. Ogiek attribute this vulnerability to the fact that they are not recognized as a distinct tribe and therefore lack political representation. The Special Rapporteur met with members of several Ogiek villages, listened to their grievances and heard their demands for the recognition of their right to land and to maintain their traditional lifestyle in the forest.

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90. In view of the above, the Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations:

A. Recommendations to the Government

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Forest areas

102. The rights of indigenous hunter-gatherer communities (particularly the Ogiek in Mau Forest) to occupy and use the resources in gazetted forest areas should be legally recognized and respected. Further excisions of gazetted forest areas and evictions of hunter-gatherers should be stopped. Titles derived from illegal excision or allocation of forest lands should be revoked, and new titles should only be granted to original inhabitants. Illegal commercial logging should be stopped.

C. Recommendations to indigenous communities and organizations
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124. Indigenous peoples’ organizations are encouraged to develop concrete strategies for data collection, research and documentation to support their advocacy work both at the national and international levels.


D. Recommendations to civil society and political parties
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127. NGOs and donors should strengthen their relations with indigenous communities, support their development initiatives and promote a better understanding of their demands and aspirations within Kenyan society.

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Read / download the full document.

The Mystery of Capital among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon

Part 1 The Mystery of Capital among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon from ILD on Vimeo.

A film directed by James Becket
Conceived of and written by Hernando de Soto
Produced by Bernardo Roca Rey and Hernando de Soto
Research Director Ana Lucía Camaiora
A Becket Films LLC and Institute for Liberty and Democracy Production

Part 2 The Mystery of Capital among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon from ILD on Vimeo.

A film directed by James Becket Conceived of and written by Hernando de Soto Produced by Bernardo Roca Rey and Hernando de Soto Research Director Ana Lucía Camaiora A Becket Films LLC and Institute for Liberty and Democracy Production

Part 3 The Mystery of Capital among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon from ILD on Vimeo.

A film directed by James Becket Conceived of and written by Hernando de Soto Produced by Bernardo Roca Rey and Hernando de Soto Research Director Ana Lucía Camaiora A Becket Films LLC and Institute for Liberty and Democracy Production