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AMERINDIAN PEOPLES ASSOCIATION (APA) PRESS RELEASE: The APA Has Never Called for a “State within a State” but Instead Respect for Indigenous Rights

14 June, 2013

Press statement: 13 June 2013

Recently and even more than before there has been a spate of letters appearing in the Guyana Chronicle leveled at criticizing the work of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and making totally false and malicious statements and assertions about the organisation and its Vice President Tony James.  These include ones written by Noel Antone (June 6), Patrick Austin (June 9) and Peter Persaud (June 12). Letters such as those above have been given ready publication by the Chronicle but when the APA has responded to provide the truth, our letters or releases are never published by the paper.  

Guna General Congress in Panama takes historic decision: Guna Yala territory free from REDD+, June 2013

12 June, 2013

During its meeting on 9th June, the Guna General Congress in Panama took the historic decision to reject all REDD+ projects in the Gunayala territory. Alongside this rejection of all REDD+ projects, the Congress took the specific decision to reject a proposed REDD+ pilot project in the region, after 2 years of public consultations. 

International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change (IIFPCC) Statements at the 38th sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC, Bonn, Germany June 2013

10 June, 2013

1. The below statement was delivered at the SBSTA REDD+ Contact Group Meeting on Non-Carbon Benefits and Non-Market Based Approaches:

REDD-Monitor Interview with Marcus Colchester, FPP: “From the point of view of the forest peoples, even though the forests are largely gone, the people are still there”

5 June, 2013

Chris Lang at REDD-Monitor interviewed Marcus Colchester in May 2013 focussing on his work on Asia Pulp and Paper. 

Read the full interview here. 

Press Release: FPP and partners launch pioneering book on Indigenous Peoples and Free, Prior and Informed Consent in the Democratic Republic of Congo

17 May, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 17 MAY 2013

As part of its project: "REDD financing, Human Rights and Economic Development for Sustainable Poverty Reduction of forest communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)", Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), and its local partners in the DRC: Actions pour les Droits, l'Environnement et la Vie (ADEV), Réseau pour la Conservation et la Réhabilitation des Ecosystèmes Forestiers (Réseau CREF), Cercle pour la Défense de l'Environnement (CEDEN), et Centre d'Accompagnement des Autochtones Pygmées et Minoritaires Vulnérables (CAMV), have published, in collaboration with the Organisation d’Accompagnement et d’Appui aux Pygmées (OSAPY), the first volume of a new book series titled Forêts Africaines - Tabernacle des Savoirs (FOATAS) (African Forests – Fountain of Knowledge). The principal theme of this first volume is: Indigenous Peoples and Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

Constitutional Court ruling restores indigenous peoples' rights to their customary forests in Indonesia

16 May, 2013

In what may well prove to be a historic judgment for Indonesia's indigenous peoples, the Constitutional Court in Jakarta ruled today that the customary forests of indigenous peoples should not be classed as falling in 'State Forest Areas', paving the way for a wider recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in the archipelago. The judgment was made in response to a petition filed with the court by the national indigenous peoples' organisation AMAN (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara) some 14 months ago. AMAN had objected to the way the 1999 Forestry Act treats indigenous peoples' 'customary forests'  as providing only weak use-rights within State Forest Areas. The judgment now opens the way for a major reallocation of forests back to the indigenous peoples who have long occupied them and looked after them. The Government's own statistics revealed last year that there are some 32,000 villages whose lands overlap areas classed as 'State Forest Areas'.

JOB VACANCY: Project Officer - Africa Programme. Closing date: 15th June 2013

13 May, 2013

Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) supports the rights of peoples who live in forests and depend on them for their livelihoods. We work to create political space for forest peoples to secure their rights, control their lands and decide their own futures.  

We are looking for a Project Officer to support our Africa programme work in Cameroon and the Congo basin. Successful applicants will speak and write fluently in French and English, and have a master’s degree (or higher) that is relevant to our work. S/he will join our work on the ground with forest peoples and their support organisations to help indigenous and local forest communities protect their forests and exercise their self-determination. The successful candidate must be committed to the principle of self-determination for indigenous peoples and local communities. S/he must be prepared to travel often and be competent in providing technical support to our project teams around the Congo basin region, including reporting on activities and events, and monitoring budgets.  

Indigenous organisations in the Peruvian Amazon denounce intentions of parliamentary commission to promote highway cutting through protected areas and indigenous territories

30 April, 2013

Indigenous organisations of the Purus province including ORAU, FECONAPU and ECOPURUS have denounced the intentions of some members of the Indigenous peoples' parliamentary commission to endorse a proposed law that would render the construction of a major highway cutting through the Purus region as a 'public necessity'. If endorsed by the commission, the law could then be considered for approval by the Peruvian parliament.

Experiences of indigenous peoples in Africa with safeguard policies: Examples from Cameroon and the Congo Basin

29 April, 2013

By Samuel Nnah Ndobe

The notion of indigenous people has sometimes been controversial in Africa. There are some opinions that consider all Africans as indigenous people liberated from colonial powers, while others simply stress that it is very difficult to determine who is indigenous in Africa. The setting up in 2001 by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) of a Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities and the Group’s report submitted to and adopted by the ACHPR in 2003 have brought a new perspective to this problem. In this report for the first time there was a unanimous acceptance of the existence of indigenous peoples in Africa and this kicked off discussions on how countries could begin to integrate the rights of these peoples into the human rights mainstream. The indigenous peoples of Central Africa include the mostly hunter gatherer peoples commonly called the “Pygmies” and a number of pastoralist peoples. These peoples still suffer discrimination experienced through the dispossession of their land and destruction of their livelihoods, cultures and identities, extreme poverty, lack of access to and participation in political decision-making and lack of access to education and health facilities.

African Development Bank set to introduce Indigenous Peoples standards for the first time

29 April, 2013

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is nearing completion of its new set of environmental and social safeguard policies. The AfDB is currently the only multilateral development bank without a standalone safeguard policy on indigenous peoples, and the new environmental and social safeguards are not expected to change this. This is despite strong advocacy from indigenous peoples’ organisations in Africa, and despite the existing jurisprudence and standards on indigenous rights in the African human rights system.