STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionupon their neighbours for their livelihoods, which leads to situations where Batwa must work on villagers’ fieldsat just the times of year when they should be planting or harvesting their own small farm plots. They may have toborrow food to survive, creating a culture of debt whereby they form a ready source of cheap labour. The Batwain Rwanda, whose forests have been destroyed, are referred to as “potters”, as that occupation has become themain source of income and even identity for the Batwa as a people. This source of income is now increasinglythreatened by industrialized pottery. Between 1978 and 1991, there was a 40-per cent fall in the Batwa populationof Rwanda, compared to a 50-per cent rise in the population of other Rwandans. Although research is verylimited, it is likely that this population decline is due to extreme poverty, poor access to health care and the loss ofland and traditional livelihoods. It is estimated that under 2 per cent of the Batwa population have sufficient landto cultivate, very few own livestock, and most are either squatters or tenants on other peoples’ land. 71 Rwandanauthorities refuse to recognize the Batwa as indigenous or even as a separate ethnic group, claiming to do sowould undermine the country’s reconciliation process.Batwa living in the Democratic Republic of Congo have also lost their territories and thus their traditionallivelihoods. A majority of the Batwa in the DRC are not documented as citizens, like other Congolese, preventingthem from legally owning land, as land entitlements are tied to Congolese nationality. 72 The livelihoods and wellbeingof the few Batwa who still live in the forests have further been threatened by conflict and the militarizationof their territories and by natural resource extraction, such as logging and mining, not only in Rwanda and theDRC, but throughout Central Africa.As a result, what used to be mainly a nomadic group that moved across long distances in the forest in pursuit ofgame and plants is gradually settling down. Most members of pygmy communities now work as day labourersand servants on farms that do not belong to them, or practice small-scale, informal mining activities. Some resortto begging. 73In recent years, Batwa organizations and communities working with non-governmental organizations like theForest Peoples Programme have been organizing and struggling to secure land and regain access to forestresources, engaging with government and donors to improve policies and laws and uphold their rights as citizens.This is taking place alongside work to improve livelihoods through pottery enterprises and new ways of earningmoney to pay for health care, schooling and housing, and to build up reserves of money and livestock.In other parts of the region, “Pygmies” still have access to forests, although this is decreasing every year. Thesepeoples include the Mbuti and Efe (of which there are 35,000 - 40,000); the Aka or Ba-Aka (25,000 - 30,000); theBaka (35,000 - 50,000), and the Bakola or Bagyeli (3,000 - 4,000). All of these groups continue, to varying degrees,as hunter-gatherers; however, significant sedentarization is taking place, and many “Pygmies” work for long orshort periods for outsiders such as logging companies, meat traders and conservationists.In these countries, indigenous communities and organizations are working to secure their lands and increasetheir access to forest through dialogue with neighbouring Bantu farming communities and with conservationagencies, governments and regional forest planners. Support NGOs are helping indigenous peoples to documentand formally map their customary land use in order to support their land claims and are providing legal advice onhow to secure their land rights. By providing information and facilitating community meetings, isolated “Pygmy”groups are able to meet and develop new forms of representation in order to engage more effectively withoutside agencies and defend their rights. 7471Mugarura and& Ndemeye (2003).72IRIN (2006), 9-10.73IRIN (2006), p. 8.74See Forest Peoples Programme at http://www.forestpeoples.orgPOVERTY AND WELL-BEING | 35
EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionEast and South East Asia: Rice culture in Ifugao, PhilippinesIndigenous peoples’ traditional livelihoods are threatened not only by extractiveindustries or huge development projects, but also by efforts that are aimed atpreserving and celebrating indigenous peoples’ cultures and the environment.In some cases, indigenous peoples have been forced off their lands for theestablishment of natural parks, whilst even the World Heritage designation canhave unintended consequences. 75in some cases, indigenouspeoples have been forcedoff their lands for theestablishment of naturalparksThe Ifugao rice terraces in the Central Cordillera, Philippines, have been widelyrecognized as an outstanding cultural heritage. They became a “nationallandmark” in 1973, were declared “living cultural landscapes” and put on theUNESCO list of World Heritage in danger in 1995, and were listed as one ofthe world’s best examples of soil and water conservation technology by theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers in 1996.However, the protection of the terraces for their aesthetic and ethnologicalimportance fails to support their function as an ongoing sustainable economy.Indeed, the attention attracted by the labelling of the terraces as “heritage”can compromise the continued sustainability of management by introducingrequirements, seen by many in the community as static and confining. At thesame time, the heightened attention has stimulated tourism and associated risksto traditional management.The growing market for wooden handicrafts and cash crops leads to intensifiedforest harvesting, and there has also been an increase in the construction ofbuildings to accommodate the needs of the tourists. These buildings exemplifythe clash between the land management values under traditional practices ascompared with the “heritage sites” of the UNESCO list. Whilst land managementof the past placed most importance and protection on the forested areas abovethe terraces in their roles as water sources and soil stabilizers, the “heritage”view delineates the terraces from the rest of the landscape as the places ofgreatest importance and protection, hence more recent houses are built for themost part in the “muyong” 76 zone of the mountain, above the terraces. 77Pacific: Traditional fishing in VanuatuOne of the fundamental aspects of the traditional indigenous fishing practicesin Vanuatu is the way in which the traditional resource management practicesare intimately interspersed with area-specific cosmologies. 78 Marine resourcemanagement was never formally compartmentalized outside the context ofculture and religion.75Guimbatan and Buguilat Jr. (2006), 59-67.76Muyong is the local name for a traditional system of forest use and management.77Guimbatan and Buguilat Jr. (2006), 59-67.78This section is based on Hickey (2007), 147-169.36 | CHAPTER I
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