Civil Society recommendations and inputs to EU priorities for UNFF 4 (May 2004)

Preliminary Civil Society recommendations for UNFF 4 (May 2004)**

Social and Cultural Aspects of Forests

What is needed are more activities at the national level to implement agreed forest-related social and cultural commitments;

Respect for human rights, land rights, territorial rights and freedom from involuntary resettlement are critical for achieving the goals of conservation and sustainable forest management and poverty reduction;

National governments and donor countries should only promote and assist forest-related policies and activities that genuinely respect the rights of and benefit indigenous peoples, local communities and women;

Where there is little or no reliable information on the social value of specific policies, governments and international agencies should support inclusive evaluations with indigenous peoples and community organisations to assess the poverty and equity impacts of the policies and activities in question;

The EU and its member governments should support in their national policies and in and their aid programmes:

Adoption of international best practice on sustainable forest management and conservation in national policies and legal frameworks;

Mainstreaming of agreed social, human rights and environmental issues in national policies (NFPs, NBSAPs, PRSPs etc etc);

Timely measures to build the capacity of indigenous peoples and community organisations to advocate their priorities in national-level forest policy making and implementation;

Action-oriented activities at the national and local level to implement existing international forest-related commitments that are proven to empower poor people, respect human rights, maintain sustainable livelihoods and alleviate poverty;

Measures to address the underlying causes of forest loss and forest degradation;

Genuine community-based forest management and indigenous and community conserved areas as a vehicle for implementing many of the intergovernmental commitments on the social and cultural aspects of forests, including on Traditional forest-related knowledge (TFRK);

Policy, legal and practical reforms that maintain, secure or restore indigenous and traditional community ties to their territories and forests (land tenure security, territorial rights, restitution of land and resource rights etc);

Measures to ensure the practical implementation of existing progressive national laws and policies on human rights and the social and cultural aspects of forests;

Participatory national-level gap analyses to identify normative and institutional obstacles to effective implementation;

Legal reforms and policy change at the national level to better recognise and respect the human rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in forest laws, policies and site level forest management plans and practices;

Elimination of defective and contradictory policies and programmes of CPF members that undermine the effective implementation of agreed social and environmental forest-related commitments;

Improved national dissemination of social and cultural related commitments on forests to government agencies, civil society and indigenous peoples (in the right languages);

More effective monitoring of implementation of agreed commitments to better identify obstacles and pinpoint successes;

SUBSTANTIVE POINTS

Address negative impacts on forests and forest dependent communities of EU-based corporations (logging, oil, mining, dams), EU consumption patterns (soy beans, shrimp, pulp/paper, palm oil), and EC development aid.

Ensure that voluntary partnership agreements to tackle illegal logging are based on proper assessment of all forest related laws and developed with full participation of civil society groups;

Improve implementation and mainstreaming of the EU Council Resolution on Indigenous Peoples in EC aid projects and programmes (i.e. Council of the European Union Resolution of 30 November 1998 "Indigenous Peoples within the framework of the development co-operation of the Community and the Member States" (1998).

Improve compliance with other existing EC social and environmental standards, commitments and best practice guidelines (Resolutions, Regulations, Sector Guidelines, including EC (2001) Guidelines for Forest Sector Development Co-operation )

Issue guidance from the UNFF to the CPF members advising that their policies and programmes be revised to better implement social, cultural and environmental standards relating to forest in the projects and programmes they assist. Specifically:

Request that both the World Bank Group and GEF formally prohibit involuntary resettlement in their policies, projects and programmes;

Recommend that those CPF members that do not have specific policies on social and cultural impact assessment, formulate, adopt and apply such standards in all forest-related projects and programmes, in accordance with best practice;

Recommend that the GEF update its Operational Programs on biodiversity to properly address land and resource rights, livelihood security and poverty alleviation issues;

Advise that the GEF improve implementation of its existing policies on traditional knowledge;

Recommend that the World Bank Policy on Indigenous Peoples is revised in a manner acceptable to the intended beneficiaries (i.e. they consider that the policy provides adequate safeguards to protect their rights, including land and territorial rights);

Recommend that the World Bank Group adopt and implement the full set of recommendations contained in its Extractives Industry Review (EIR) report;

Request that the World Bank take concrete measures to ensure that its forest-related loans, technical assistance and policy based lending guarantee effective participation of affected communities and concerned rights holders and citizens;

Welcome the outcomes of the Vth World Parks Congress, held in Durban in September 2003;

Promote and support national implementation of the new paradigm on protected areas (Durban Action Plan and Recommendations);

Welcome the CBD’s new work programme on Protected Areas adopted in CBD COP 7;

Take timely measures to ensure NGOs, indigenous peoples and other local communities participate effectively in the mid term review of the existing EC Country Strategy Papers and the development of the new CSPs;

Open spaces for the participation of indigenous peoples and civil society in national policy dialogue between EC and government recipients of EC development aid;

Support indigenous campaigns and initiatives to promote the reform of national laws and policies to recognise indigenous peoples’ rights over their ancestral territories; ]

Traditional Forest Related knowledge (TFRK)

All decisions and initiatives on traditional knowledge should be made with the free prior and informed consent of concerned indigenous peoples or other holders of traditional knowledge in the area: this is a fundamental minimum requirement for indigenous peoples in all decisions and actions relating to TFRK.

Recognise that secure land tenure of indigenous and local communities is fundamental to safeguarding cultural integrity and the retention and preservation of traditional knowledge;

Traditional knowledge is inextricably linked to and dependent upon indigenous peoples’ ties to their traditional territories;

Recognise that knowledge-related rights are inseparable from the bundle of civil, political, economic and cultural rights enjoyed by the holders of traditional knowledge;

Support the demands of the holders of traditional knowledge that any policy or legal measures for the protection of TFRK must be grounded in an integrated human rights and sustainable development framework;

Do not promote inappropriate, narrow and unjust systems for the protection and maintenance of traditional knowledge (IPR, registers, inventories etc.);

SPECIFIC, SUBSTANTIVE POINTS

Welcome the adoption by CBD COP 7 of the Akwé:kon guidelines for the conduct of cultural, environmental and social impact assessment regarding developments proposed to take place on, or which are Likely to impact on, sacred sites and on lands and waters traditionally occupied or used by indigenous and local communities";

Recommend that governments, development agencies and CPF members adopt best-practice standards on social and cultural impact assessment aimed at safeguarding and preserving traditional knowledge e.g., Akwé:kon guidelines;

Implement and pay special attention to Article 10c of the CBD in connection with sustainable use of forest resources and protected areas and establish mechanisms in collaboration with indigenous and local communities to this end;

Promote and advocate indigenous and community conserved areas;

Support mainstreaming of land rights and tenure issues National Forest Programmes, National Biodiversity Action Plans, National Sustainable Development Strategies and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers;

Support indigenous-led initiatives on traditional knowledge e.g., UNFF intersessional meeting on Traditional Forest Related Knowledge planned for December 2004; indigenous;

Back indigenous and UN initiatives (workshops, case studies, national reviews) to examine ways to effectively respect indigenous peoples’ to right to free, prior and informed consent;

Assist indigenous participation in regional and national workshops the advisory committee tasked with making inputs to second phase of the CBD Composite Report on the Status, Trends and Threats to Traditional Knowledge;

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** The points and issues contained in this note are not exhaustive and will be further refined and expanded by NGOs and indigenous peoples at the UNFF-4 session.