STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributioninternational documents and mechanisms, most recently in the UN Declaration on the Rights of IndigenousPeoples, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007. This Declaration recognizes in its preamble that “respect forindigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable developmentand proper management of the environment”, and although it does not create any new rights, it responds to theurgent need to respect and promote indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and thereby, among otherthings, their inherent rights in relation to political, economic, social, cultural, spiritual as well as environmentaland natural resource management 10 .Inherent rights of indigenous peoplesThe right of self-determination established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoplesessentially implies the following inherent rights of indigenous peoples in relation to natural resourcemanagement:to their ancestral land, territories and resources, as a collective and individual right;to exercise control and management of their right to lands, territories and resources;to self-government by their own institutions and authorities within their lands and territories;to self-development (meaning the right to their own decision-making on conservation and developmentoptions for their lands, territories and resources);to fair and equitable benefit sharing from conservation and development actions involving their lands,territories, resources, and people;to conserve, develop, use and protect their traditional knowledge.These remarkable advances do not mean, however, that the struggle of indigenous peoples for their rights andconcerns when it comes to lands and natural resources is over. At the international level, indigenous peoples’voices are still often marginalized, and vital indigenous interests not taken into consideration at the moment offormulating policies. But it is at the national and local levels that indigenous peoples face the most overwhelmingchallenges in protecting their environmental rights from structural discrimination, corporate interests,globalization, etc., and in adapting their livelihoods to climate changes.This chapter examines a number of issues on the topic of indigenous peoples and the environment. Afteridentifying some of the environmental problems confronting indigenous peoples, the chapter looks at the existinginternational law and mechanisms for environmental protection and how indigenous peoples make use of theseinstruments. It finally identifies some of the implementation gaps and challenges indigenous peoples still face inthe struggle for their environmental rights.10Joffe (2008), 2.2.86 | CHAPTER III