3 June, 2011
Recent work carried out by various indigenous peoples, such as community mapping and documenting traditional resource use, has resulted in interesting insights into the different gender dimensions in their customary use of biodiversity. In many indigenous communities, there are clear divisions in men’s and women’s roles and tasks relating to biodiversity use. This article shares some examples from case studies carried out by the Wapichan people from South-west Guyana and by the Karen and Hmong people from Northern Thailand.
7 December, 2010
In the early morning hours of Saturday 30th October, after two weeks of intense, late-night sessions and down-to-the wire negotiations, the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) at their 10th Conference (COP 10), adopted a “package” which consists of a protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, a new Strategic Plan, and a strategy for the mobilization of resources to effectively implement the convention. In addition, more than forty other Decisions were adopted, including Decisions on: Biodiversity and Climate Change; Protected Areas; Sustainable Use; and Traditional Knowledge, Innovations and Practices. Indigenous peoples celebrated some victories, but also returned home with concerns.
23 October, 2010
Messe Venant, Forest Peoples Programme's Cameroon Field Officer highlights the importance of bushmeat for the Baka in Cameroon in a recent article on the BBC website.
"Everything we need, we go into the forest - for food or anything else," he said. "The principal source of protein for the Baka is bushmeat."
Read the full article by Richard Black on the BBC website.
FPP & Indigenous and local community partners
18 October, 2010
On Monday 18th October, FPP and its indigenous and local community partners together with the CBD Secretariat, hosted a side event on customary sustainable use, which is the focus of CBD Article 10(c).
13 October, 2010
Click here for FPP & Partners' 'CBD COP 10 - Nagoya Blog' to follow indigenous peoples and local community representatives in Nagoya online.
For all forest peoples, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), starting today, October 18, 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, is a critical one: their governments will make new agreements on the conservation, use, and development of the world’s natural riches. As most of these resources are found in indigenous peoples’ territories, the future directions of the Convention will have far-reaching impacts on forest peoples’ lands, livelihoods and way of life. Will forest communities’ positive contributions to global biodiversity receive the attention they deserve and will their interests and rights be respected? Or, will they be limited to a few minor paragraphs in the Decisions of COP 10?
Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), KLIM (Suriname), SCPDA (Guyana), IMPECT (Thailand), OKANI, CED (Cameroon), Unnayan Onneshan (Bangladesh)
11 October, 2010
Synthesis Paper - Customary sustainable use of biodiversity by indigenous peoples and local communities: Examples, challenges, community initiatives and recommendations relating to CBD Article 10(c)
A Synthesis Paper based on Case Studies from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Suriname and Thailand.
6 July, 2010
During May, the Norwegian Government announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Guyana to contribute US$230 million towards the country's Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). It only remained to be decided which financial agency would act as the intermediary with the fiduciary responsibility to make sure the monies were handed over with due care. Would this be the World Bank and what standards would the World Bank follow to supply this money?
6 July, 2010
Our last E-newsletter (April 2010) reported that a group of indigenous experts on sustainable use issues within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the '10(c) team', planned to highlight the link between secure land and resource rights and the protection and maintenance of customary sustainable use of biological resources by indigenous and local communities. This was to take place at the 14th meeting of the CBD's Subsidiary Body on Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-14) in Nairobi, Kenya (10-21 May). Unfortunately, in the event, delegates did not follow the indigenous experts' proposals to include concrete text on this issue in the final SBSTTA recommendations. Discussions on the use and management of wildlife ('bush meat') also caused indigenous peoples great concern and created impassioned debate.
Traditional conservation ritual illustrates connection between Karen people's spiritual beliefs and sustainable resource use
© IMPECT
Achuar family on the river in their customary lands, Peru, 2007
© FPP