Indigenous advocates at Convention on Biological Diversity COP11 meeting in India

This week indigenous peoples from around the world have joined international government leaders at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) in Hyderabad, India. This important meeting involves crucial negotiations related to indigenous peoples, who are advocating for the protection of their traditional lands and drawing attention to the social and cultural dimensions of conservation and respect for their rights as the Parties to the Convention assess the progress and effectiveness of the CBD’s work to-date and devise new plans and solutions for the global biodiversity crisis.

Forest Peoples Programme is attending COP11 to support a delegation of indigenous and local leaders and local support organisations from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Guyana, Panama, Suriname and Thailand, together with the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB).

Indigenous peoples, who have been guardians of biodiverse landscapes for centuries, have the most important role to play in addressing the ongoing loss and degradation of ecosystems. Their traditional knowledge and practices are extremely valuable in conserving and sustainably using important species and areas, as well as in contributing to biodiversity research, monitoring and management. The full and effective involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the Convention, at all levels, is key to its overall short and long term success and this acknowledgement and intention must be reflected in the outcomes of the meeting.

Indigenous peoples and local communities, being an intrinsic part of biodiverse areas, are usually the first to suffer the grave and often irreversible impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change, made worse by inappropriate top-down measures devised to address these issues which lack real respect for indigenous peoples’ territories, rights and full involvement in important decision making processes. Decisions taken by CBD Parties in Hyderabad, whether relating to biofuels, protected areas or climate change, must not harm indigenous peoples, their lands, or their livelihoods but should conversely be seeking to enhance the rights of indigenous peoples and in particular address issues of cost and benefit sharing.

A new action plan is being developed at COP11 to support and encourage indigenous peoples in their customary sustainable practices , which reflect their careful and protective interaction with the natural environment,. 

The development of the action plan on customary sustainable use  is very important. Recent research shows many countries lack effective policies and practices to support and protect indigenous peoples’ traditional sustainable use of natural resources, and as a consequence customary practices worldwide are under serious threat. A sticking point in the CBD has always been governments’ unwillingness to admit that securing sustainable use by communities and indigenous peoples requires recognition of their rights to own, control and manage their lands and resources. Without secure tenure it is hard for them to apply, generate, maintain, and transmit their customary sustainable practices and their associated knowledge. These linkages should be firmly acknowledged and supported by Parties in the new action plan and other decisions, in light of existing international commitments to uphold indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ land, resource and tenure rights, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and the Rio+20 outcome document.

This week indigenous peoples are also pressing CBD Parties to rephrase the outdated terminology ‘indigenous and local communities’ to ‘indigenous peoples and local communities’ as an accurate reflection of their distinct identities and cosmovisions (how indigenous peoples’ view and understand the world). Indigenous peoples have requested this since the adoption of the UNDRIP in 2007. Affirmation of the status of indigenous peoples as “peoples” is important in fully respecting and protecting their human rights.

Please visit the special CBD COP11 page on the FPP website for the latest updates direct from India, including background information, statements, interviews, presentations and opinions from indigenous peoples attending the meeting.

Further information:

• CBD COP11 page on FPP website: http://www.forestpeoples.org/tags/convention-biological-diversity-cop11-meeting-india

• Please see the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB)'s website to read the latest statements, updates/news, tweets and press conference statements, here: http://iifb.indigenousportal.com/category/cop11/

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP): http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

• FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security: http://www.fao.org/nr/tenure/voluntary-guidelines/en/

• Rio+20 outcome document: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/476/10/PDF/N1147610.pdf?OpenElement