UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

concerns and explaining why they were convinced
that the World Bank’s plan was not a good idea. “The
Bank told them that they would respond in writing
about what they would do about these concerns, but,
a month and a half later, we got a letter saying that
these concerns weren’t valid and the Bank wasn’t
going to do anything different, in essence,”
Stevenson said.
Afterward, Stevenson went to confront the World
Bank and told them that although they said they had
done consultations, analysis of their actions proves
that they were not actually true consultations.
Stevenson demanded that the World Bank explain
what they would do about it, but their answer was
simply that they recognize that they are not
complying with international law about
consultations, but what they will do is report to their
board at the G8 that indigenous peoples have not
been fully consulted. However, Stevenson said that
when the Amazon Alliance tracked what they
actually said when they met with their board, it was
that “indigenous peoples have been fully consulted.”
At that point, Amazon Alliance contacted their
Steering Council to let them know what was going
on, and with some help from the Moore Foundation,
held a meeting with the Bank and several of the
indigenous organizations from the Amazon to
discuss climate change. Right after that, the World
Bank approved Guyana and Bolivia within the Forest
Carbon Partnership Facility. The proposal to the
World Bank from Guyana proposes eliminating
slash-and-burn agricultural systems, for which the
government of Guyana will get money that will then
be used to develop indigenous communities in those
areas, and integrate them into a market economy.
Stevenson asked for recommendations as to what the
Amazon Alliance should recommend to its members,
and what indigenous organizations should do in
general about the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
of the World Bank.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the Tebtebba Foundation
explained that the World Bank’s money for these
projects comes from the governments, such as
Norway and the UK. “We should go directly to the
people who are giving the money,” she urged. Tauli-
Corpuz described how she had had a discussion in
Norway with the Minister of Environmental
Development, who is in charge of the Norwegian
REDD fund. “They are giving to the forest
investment program, they are giving to the forest
carbon partnership program. We asked point blank if
they would put in [the rights and principles of]
<strong>UNDRIP</strong> as correct preconditions, and they said they
don’t put conditions in their bilateral aid,” she said.
Tauli-Corpuz said she wondered, if you have
environmental standards, she wonders what
difference it would make to include the standards of
indigenous peoples. “If you have supported the
adoption of <strong>UNDRIP</strong>, you should at least be able to
play that role. If you don’t want to do that, you
should at least support indigenous peoples’ capacity
to assert their rights on the ground,” she said.
In a response to a comment made by Trevor
Stevenson, Chad Dobson of the Bank Information
Center pointed out that there are only twenty of
them at the Bank Information Center, while there are
more than 5,000 people at the World Bank. He
argued that the World Bank does not know how to
deal with environmental and social issues, and that
we need to tell them what they ought to do, and then
convince them. “We need to develop a plan and ask
the Norwegians to sell it and to support it. But if
there is something coming out of the Permanent
<strong>Forum</strong> saying this is what we need to have in order
to be confident in <strong>UNDRIP</strong>, we need to do the
design,” he said.
Dr. Robert Goodland, an ecologist and a former
environmental advisor to the World Bank, reflected
on when he had been invited to help design the
Banco del Sur’s environmental and social operational
procedures. He had heard that the Banco del Sur was
unhappy with the IMF and the World Bank, and they
were going to design something entirely the
opposite. “But when I got there, I realized that in that
meeting many did not know much about indigenous
peoples,” he said.
“There is a big opportunity for the World Bank. It
used to be bigger when Peter Woicke was the head of
the IFC (<strong>International</strong> Finance Corporation). He had
adopted most of the labor standards of the ILO. We
used that to say that if the IFC can do it, then we can
do it. Now, the bank is embarrassed for adopting
those standards.” Goodland also said that there is a
book by Mac Darrow, Between Light and Shadow,
which is the best account of the internal progress on
human rights inside the World Bank. There is room
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