STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionand practices, which were formerly undervalued and ignored, are consideredimportant and necessary contributions to the conservation of biodiversity. Yetthis knowledge is under severe threat of being eroded, lost or misappropriated.Dispossession or forced removal from traditional lands and sacred sites haseroded the relationship between indigenous peoples and their environment.Without access to their land and natural resources, people can no longer carryout their cultural activities or use and develop their traditional knowledge. Whenforced to migrate and resettle in new environments, indigenous peoples findthat their traditional knowledge and practices have to be adapted to new andoften difficult circumstances. This has put the cultural diversity and traditionalknowledge of indigenous peoples under tremendous pressure.indigenous peoples’traditional knowledgeand practices, which wereformerly undervaluedand ignored, areconsidered important andnecessary contributionsto the conservation ofbiodiversityTraditional knowledge may also sometimes be lost as the result of languageextinction. In one century, the world has lost around 600 languages. At currentrates, 90 per cent of all languages will be lost in the twenty-first century—mostspoken by indigenous and traditional peoples. 34 Since the traditional knowledgeaccumulated by indigenous peoples is contained in languages that often haveno script, this knowledge is passed on to other groups and new generationsorally, making it difficult to retrieve once a language becomes extinct. Thesurvival and vitality of indigenous languages is therefore a key to maintainingtraditional knowledge. 35Poverty is another threat to traditional knowledge. Poverty will often drive theusers of bio-diverse environments to over-exploit the resources in their territoriesto the point of no return in terms of sustainability. It is often the case that whenpeople are poor, conservation is not a high priority, and they will take out ofthe environment whatever is needed for their survival. As noted in a regionalreport on threats to traditional knowledge, “even if people have knowledgeabout sustainable harvesting regimes, when they are poor, this knowledge isignored”. 36 Livelihood diversification must therefore be a key consideration inthe process of addressing people’s livelihoods and its link to the preservation oftraditional knowledge systems recognized. 37A more recent threat that is raising growing concern is the misappropriationof indigenous knowledge in the form of biopiracy. It has been stated that“developments in science-based technologies, especially biotechnology andgenetic engineering, have broadened the economic utility of natural resourcesand increased the economic value of biodiversity”. 38 As indigenous communitiesoften inhabit areas with the highest biodiversity, “they are coming underincreasing pressure from biodiversity prospectors and corporations interested34UNHCHR (2008).35Working Group on Article 8J (2007j), para. 42.36Working Group on Article 8J (2007a) para. 54.37Working Group on Article 8J (200ja), para. 54.38Simpson (1997), 50-51.94 | CHAPTER III