In Montecatini, Italy, Indigenous representatives from all over the world, convened by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, came together to attend the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Protected Areas, from 13 to 17 June. This is the first UN meeting solely addressing the issue of protected areas, which are set aside for the protection of threatened habitats and species. Indigenous Peoples seek to build on historic progress from previous meetings, at which the international community committed itself to the application of new models of protected areas that respect the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples have first-hand experience of the negative social impacts of protected areas. In Cameroon, for example, the establishment of the Campo Maan National Park resulted in the forced relocation of Indigenous communities who lost access to their homelands, sacred sites and livelihood resources. In the Peruvian Amazon, until today, protected areas continue to be established without adequate prior consultation or the consent of the affected Indigenous Peoples. National Parks in Peru, like the Pacaya Samiria Reserve, have curtailed Indigenous livelihoods, resulting in the impoverishment of the affected communities. Many other similar tragic cases of unjust parks can be found in other parts of the world.

Government environmental agencies and conservationists are now working under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to try and ensure that exclusionary approaches of protected areas become a thing of the past. The CBD is the paramount international instrument that frames the way in which countries will achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Among other tasks, the Governments at this CBD meeting will start to develop new guidelines on how best to apply this new, inclusive approach to protected areas. Indigenous Peoples stress that they have relevant knowledge and experience and must be allowed to make major inputs to these new guidelines. However, sight of the official meeting documents has dismayed Indigenous delegates as many of their concerns have been sidelined. They realise that they still have much work to do during this week-long meeting.

As Jannie Lasimbang of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) explains: