Vacancy - Senior Bookkeeper

Natural Justice is looking for a full-time Senior Bookkeeper who can assist our office manager in Cape Town in the financial management of the organisation, maintain established financial management systems, report to various stakeholders, and be prepared to execute all administrative tasks incidental to the finance department. 

Please download the call for applications for more information, including instructions for submitting an application. The deadline is 9 December 2013, 17h00 (GMT+1). Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. Thanks in advance and good luck!

Is Oil the End of Poverty in Kenya? Or are we seeing the new Scramble for Africa?

Map of Oil Exploration blocks in Kenya

From November 26-27th Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended a seminar on the extractives industry in Kenya entitled, ‘Kenya’s new natural resource discoveries: Blessing or Curse?’ The meeting was co-hosted by the Tax Justice Network Africa, Econews Africa, East Africa Tax and Governance Network, Kenya Human Rights Commission and Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group. Attendees ranged from Civil Society representatives from Kenya, Ghana, DRC and Zambia among others, as well as members of the Turkana and Endorois communities.

Some of the key issues raised in the various panels and plenary discussions included: 

• Should Kenya sign up to the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI)? 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development investors and governments 
• The importance of land for Africans, it is not really possible to compensate someone for the loss of something that makes up their very identity. For this reason, the idea of Shareholding Ownership Schemes was suggested as a progressive model to structure community benefits. This has successfully been implemented in some mining areas in Zimbabwe. 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development model?
• There are over thirty communities in Kenya right now that have taken various projects within Vision 2030 to Court for disregard of proper legal processes, however there is limited legal capacity within communities to take these cases very far. 
• At the CSO level the lack of capacity to deal with these new and specialized issues is aggravated by the poaching of skilled people by industry. 
• There is a lack of linkage between the many Bills currently being discussed, leading to a fractured legal landscape that makes implementation even more difficult. 
• How should we extract? Rather than becoming another Nigeria, can Kenya learn from the lessons of Norway or the US? Others disagreed on whether Norway and the US even qualify as successful models, as they have outsourced many of the negative impacts of extraction to less developed countries. 
• There was a lot of emphasis on the need for Kenyans to learn from previous mining and oil experiences in Kenya, Africa and abroad to ensure that the right safeguards and practices are in place.

At the Extractives and the Environment group Natural Justice attended, some particular challenges concerning the environment discussed included: 

• Much of the planned extraction thus far will occur in extremely water-constrained environments. 
• Should the definition of ‘extractive industries’ expand to include practices like industrial agriculture or large-scale fishing? 
• Inter-generational equity – why must we exploit these natural resources immediately? Does it make more sense to build more capacity and infrastructure to manage the resources well first? This will ensure that negative effects are mitigated and allow Kenya to benefit more through value-addition. 
• The particular impact of the extractives on pastoralists is unique, and many international companies will not have come across this situation before. CSOs need to watch out for this and help them understand the relationship pastoralists have to the land. 
• The need for environmental education – many people at both the CSO and community level do not fully understand the environmental and health impacts of the extractives. 

The meeting concluded with strong words regarding the role and goals of CSOs and NGOs in Kenya. Several people asked, why aren’t people more angry? Others felt that to ensure institutions are accountable to citizens a fundamental change in power relations will be necessary. The meeting closed with a powerful reminder that this is the new scramble for Africa: over 2000 businessmen accompanied Obama on his last visit to Africa. Sarkozy recently remarked on how long the West has been ignoring Africa, but now it has finally entered history.

African Regional Civil Society Convening on Human Rights and Business

From 25 to 27 November 2013, Stephanie Booker of Natural Justice attended the African Regional Civil Society Convening on Human Rights and Business in Accra, Ghana. With at least 20 participants from central, eastern, southern and western Ghana, the objectives of the meeting included: 

• Sharing of learning and skills on practical strategies for influencing state and company practices and polices to realize human rights, and the complex system of mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, for effective remedy; 
• Build understanding and relationships among African CSOs working to protect human rights where business activities occur;
• Design an agenda for an African regional coalition on human rights and business and engage with the 9th Biennial Conference of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions; 

The establishment of the African Coalition on Corporate Accountability (ACCA) emerged from this meeting and ACCA's first declaration was presented at the UN's second Forum on Business and Human Rights from 2 to 4 December in Geneva. You may find the declaration in English and French here.

Natural Justice Statement of Support

Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and the Environment is a not-for-profit association registered in South Africa since 2007. We work at the local, national, regional, and international levels with a wide range of partners, including in several countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in support of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ self-determination and the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources. Much of our work aims to ensure that procedural and substantive rights of marginalised peoples and communities, as well as responsibilities of duty-bearers, are represented and realised at all levels of law and policy.

One of our Fellows in India, Stella James, recently made a personal decision to write about her experience with sexual harassment. This was published online in the Journal of Indian Law and Society  on 6 November 2013 (http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/) and was subsequently featured in numerous online, national and international news outlets. On Monday 18 November, she made a statement before a 3-member Committee established by the Supreme Court of India to investigate the allegations. On Thursday 21 November, she wrote a second statement in the Journal of Indian Law and Society to clarify recent events (http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/statement-of-stella-james-21-11-2013-2/). We request media to refer to her original statements, which clearly state her views on the issue.

We condemn every form of harassment, assault and abuse of women, including in the legal profession itself. Women who face such attacks and decide to come forward with their experiences in the hopes of preventing others from facing the same are extraordinarily brave and must be supported in their individual struggles as we collectively strive for a world free of discrimination and injustice. We stand in solidarity with our team member and request all media to respect Stella’s privacy. Natural Justice will not respond to requests for comments or further information.

*     *     *

For information about Natural Justice, please see: www.naturaljustice.org

For Stella’s original statements, please see:

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/ and

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/statement-of-stella-james-21-11-2013-2/

Natural Justice visit Kutch, Gujarat

Revati Pandya and Arpitha Kodiveri of Natural Justice in India recently visited Kutch, Gujarat from November 19th-25th,
2013 to work with Sahjeevan in identifying legal issues that effect the camel maldharis that migrate through this vast landscape. Field visits with communities in Chhari Dhand, Lakhpat and the Banni area led to interesting insights into the nature of threats that the community faces from fast paced industrialization through the establishment of cement and chemical plants to restriction of grazing rights in mangrove and other protected areas. 

The field visit culminated with being a part of the Banni Pashumela a colourful event which saw Maldharis from Kutch coming together to trade livestock and partake in horse and camel races. 

Natural Justice will now be working closely with Sahjeevan in mapping legal issues of the Camel Maldharis and carving a way forward to address these threats through the lens of the law.

Coexistence of Culture, Environment & LAPSSET Theatre Performance

Save Lamu information booth at the Cultural Festival

On Saturday 21st November, Save Lamu Voices gave a theatre performance, entitled Coexistence of Culture, Environment & LAPSSET at the 13th Annual Lamu Cultural Festival. The workshops and performance were organized by one of Natural Justice’s partners, Save Lamu. 

The group Save Lamu Voices is a group of local actors, consisting of youth, women, and members of indigenous communities within the county such as the Bajun, Orma, Aweer and Sanye. The performance was the result of several weeks of participatory theatre workshops aiming to: 

1. Raise awareness amongst the community on the LAPSSET Project and extractives industries in Lamu; 
2. Foster dialogue amongst the community on dealing with the challenges of the impending port, including the preservation of the cultural and social identity of marginalized indigenous communities in Lamu. 

Save Lamu also sponsored the Festival’s Mshairi Poetry Competition. Mshairi poetry is an important part of Swahili culture, and a vital, popular and traditional means of conveying messages. Men and women poets submitted entries on the theme Coexistence of Culture, Environment & LAPSSET. 

About the LAPSSET Project: 

A scene from the play

Since 2009, the Government of Kenya has expressed plans to undertake a multipurpose transport and communication corridor known as the ‘Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport’ (LAPSSET) Corridor. LAPSSET will consist of railway lines, a port, a super highway, a regional international airport, an ultra-modern tourist resort, an oil pipeline, and a fibre-optic cable constructed to link Lamu to Juba and Addis Ababa. Save Lamu are not asking for the project to be halted, but that the project is conducted with the free, prior and informed consent of the community and according to fair and rigorous environmental and social impact assessments.

The Paudhi Bhuinya Community, Odisha, India

On November 20th 2013 a workshop on Biocultural Community Protocols was held in Bhatuda village, Odisha, India. The workshop was organized by Jeevan Vikash in collaboration with HBS-Natural Justice. George Pyara Jojo from Jeevan Vikash and Kishore Kumar Patnaik from HBS-Natural Justice took part in the workshop. Around 85 villagers belonging to: the Paudi Bhuinya Community (PBC), other Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes of Bhatuda Panchayat, participated in the workshop. The villagers shared and discussed their cultural activities and livelihoods. These traditions have been practiced by PBC for generations, many consisting of unwritten ceremonies and other beliefs of their ancestral system. 

The Government of India recognizes 13 Tribal communities in Odisha as Primitive Tribal Groups of which PBC is included. The entire Sundargarh district falls under the 5th Schedule area of the Indian Constitution. The Paudi Bhuinya Community celebrates four festivals each year: Asandi (August), Gohana (August), Thakurani (December) and Korma (November). During these festivals all the PBC people get together in the village and have feasts and celebrate by making merry with wine. The PBC depend for their livelihood on cultivation in the hill areas, forest products and daily labour in adjacent mining areas. They produce millets, pulses and paddy. The harvest takes place only in the rainy season. The community faces a number of diseases, malnutrition and drinking water problems due to mining leakage of pollutants into the air and streams. They don’t have any other water facilities in the area. The villages are surrounded by hills and are located inside the forest. The industry’s mining work has been ongoing nearby in the Bhutuda Grama Panchayat hills. People from other communities like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (other than PBC tribes) and others also live in those hilly areas. 

According to Ms Alati Patra, Secretary and Mr Sitaram Deuri, President of the Forest Rights Committee, 94 persons from Bhatuda village submitted their individual forest right claims under “The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and Rules” before the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) a year back but till today not one family has received forest rights recognition. The FRC says all the claim forms were submitted a year ago before the District Forest Officials, Sundargarh but they accepted only 52 claims and the remaining claims were rejected by the DFO for reasons unknown. 

The Government of India introduced a central project for the development of PBC but a lot of work remains pending to implement the schemes. The PBC live in two blocks of Sundargarh district. They do not have any land records and are located far away from most government schemes. But they still live happily and make merry with their traditional values.

Roundtable Meeting on the Effect of Oil and Mining Activities on Communities in Kenya

On November 19th Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended a roundtable meeting on the effect of oil and mining activities on communities in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting opened with a presentation by Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) researcher Joshua Laichena on an upcoming research project KIPPRA is undertaking with the Brookings Institute on the effects of oil and mining activities on communities in Turkana, Kwale and Kitui Counties. Currently, the research is in the planning phases, but it will hopefully be complete by March 2014. The research will consist of multi-stakeholder forums, community interviews and GIS mapping. 

Most attendees articulated that Kenya needs further laws to regulate this sector, especially as the legal landscape is changing very quickly. A need was expressed for a community engagement mechanism that will work for Kenya as a country. This should include good communication mechanisms to help the community to understand and participate in decision-making processes. Capacity-building is also necessary are communities are currently unable to negotiate for themselves (especially when up against well-paid international lawyers for investing companies). Natural Justice’s work with BCPs seems particularly relevant to these needs. 

KIPPRA’s research operates from the premise that oil and mining will not just bring national benefit but is inherently interlinked to communities and the environment. Therefore they are asking, how can Kenya avoid the resource curse and follow in the footsteps of Botswana, Norway and the US, not Nigeria and the DRC? This is especially important because oil and mining isn’t just the latest hot cake in Kenya, but it will occur in ecologically sensitive zones and conflict areas (Somali and South Sudan borders).

Sacred Natural Sites Side Event as the Asian Parks Congress

The First Asian Parks Congress this year was held from 13-18th November in Japan, hosting over 800 people. The meeting is in preparation for the World Parks Congress in Sydney next near. The Sacred Natural Sites Initiative and WCPA Japan hosted a side event that discussed the richness and diversity of Sacred Natural Sites in Asia. Steps were also taken to establish as Asian Sacred Natural Sites network. Sacred Natural sites achieved a high profile overall over the course of the Asian Parks Congress and received substantial mention within the outputs of the meeting.

The key questions of the side event were:

1. To what extent do Sacred Natural Sites form the backbone of many protected areas in Asia, e.g. their cultural, spiritual and philosophical underpinnings?
2. What is the modern relevance of Ancestral Sacred Natural Sites to Protected Areas and how can this be better recognised and the traditional guardians be engaged?
3. How can we improve management effectiveness, governance and equity of Sacred Natural Sites within and outside government protected areas in Asia?

For more information, please see a full article on the event here. 

Field Visit to Sariska Tiger Reserve - Alwar, Rajasthan, India

Three team members from the NJ India office (Arpitha Kodiveri, Revati Pandya and Vaneesha Jain) visited the offices of the NGO Krapavis, Rajasthan, and also several villages inside Sariska Tiger Reserve. 

On 13th November, 2013, Arpitha, Revati and Vaneesha discussed the following issues with Aman Singh, who is running the NGO Krapavis based out of Alwar, Rajasthan:

• The status of relocation in 5 villages in Sariska Tiger Reserve as per the Relocation plan prepared by the Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Jaipur, in November 2009. It appears that relocated communities are not given adequate ownership rights over the new land, which needs further looking into. Further, it has come to light that in the relocation process of the village Kiraska, residents were forced to surrender any land they owned outside Kiraska to the Government as well, which is in complete violation of both enacted law and basic principles of fairness. 
• The main barrier to the relocation process for local communities in view of the declaration of Sariska as a Critical Tiger Habitat appears to be that the offer of land for land is not being placed before communities as required by law. The community seems to be divided on the issue of relocation, which remains a sensitive topic of discussion. Meanwhile, local communities inside Sariska are becoming increasingly aware of their rights under the FRA. 
• The problems faced by the Umri village which was recently relocated to Mojpur. We will shortly be analyzing a petition filed before the local authorities by Krapavis on behalf of the erstwhile residents of Umri. 
• The status of illegal mining which is still ongoing in the southern part of Sariska and the ensuing problems faced by local communities. Such mining is primarily open-cast mining done for dolomite extraction by big businessmen and politicians. 
• The problem of lack of proactiveness by the local administration –the statutorily mandated Forest Rights Committee has not been set up in many villages, and where it has, the constant changing of the Forest Officer leads to the villagers being unable to have their concerns redressed. Different Forest Officers have varying levels of sympathy with local communities. 
• One of the main problems the villagers seem to face is that their cattle is often ‘arrested’ by Forest Department officials when they overstep the grazing boundaries and taken to a cattle prison, locally known as ‘Kalighati’. The community, which is pastoralist and dependant on these cattle for their livelihood, then have to pay heavy fines for the release of their cattle. 
• FRA claims are not being filed, due to the Government’s denial of its applicability in Sariska on the claim that it is not a ‘Scheduled Area’. This issue needs our immediate attention. 
• Discussion and review of a proposal to experiment with the implementation of the FRA in the villages in the buffer area. 

On Day 2, the NJ team was taken to visit 5 villages inside the core area of Sariska Tiger Reserve by Krapavis. These were the villages of Benak, Bera, Loj-Nathusar, Bakhtpura and Kalikol. We interacted briefly with the residents of each of these villages. Our conversations were often mediated by Aman Singh from Krapavis. These visits served as a useful introduction to the field, to get a sense of the local dynamics and environment. Amongst other things, we were told of how villagers have, on several occasions, been beaten up by Forest Department officials on false charges of poaching. On this day, we also visited the field station of Krapavis in Bakhtpura. 

On Day 3, we met a local resident from Haripura village inside Sariska, Nanak Ram, who took us inside the reserve to his village. We spent the rest of the day and the night in Haripura, talking to the residents about their daily lives, the issues they face with the Forest Department, their rituals and beliefs, their relationship with Nature, and concerns around the FRA. We were witness to the importance of cattle in the lives of this pastoralist community. Over the coming few weeks, we hope to write about our experiences in more detail, and also share some of the stories we were told by the community members. 

On the following day, we trekked up to the village of Lilunda, which has a maximum of 20 houses. We spoke to Dadkali Tai, who is a village elder there. Conversations with the residents of Lilunda suggest that while there has always been trouble with the Forest Department, pressures seem to have escalated over the last couple of years, and it appears that the need for implementation of the FRA is more urgent than ever. 

The final day on the field in Rajasthan saw spent visiting the site where a village has been recently relocated. There was a stark contrast in the experience of relocation between the Gujjar community and Meena community who previously inhabited the tiger reserve. While the Meenas seemed satisfied and happy to have been relocated as it has brought with it access to schools and better medical facilities, the Gujjars, whose livelihood has traditionally depended on the sale of milk, are unhappy at having been forced into agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. We are now looking at how to strategize around this issue and seeing how legal action on behalf of the Gujjars can be taken. 

Warsaw Climate Change Conference

The 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place in Warsaw, Poland from 11-22 November 2013. Parties to the convention will continue to negotiate a new global climate agreement, which they intend to adopt in 2015 and implement no later than 2020. The Convention aims to keep global temperature rise below the critical 2oC threshold. The talks take place amid increasing evidence of rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change and the need for urgent action: 

• The World Meteorological Organisation recently reported that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached new highs in 2012, and an upward and accelerating trend is continuing which is driving climate change. 
• In the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Fifth Assessment Report: The Physical Science Basis, it was shown that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and that limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists calculated a carbon budget and revealed that nearly half of all the carbon dioxide that can be safely emitted without raising temperatures above a dangerous 2oC had already been emitted by 2011, and the entire budget could be used up by 2040. 
• Carbon Tracker has shown that fossil fuel reserves far exceed the carbon budget, and to have a chance of not exceeding the global warming of 2oC between 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves publicly listed by companies is ‘unburnable’ and must be left in the ground. 
• The UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2013 assess whether pledges and commitments by Parties to the UNFCCC are consistent with its aim to remain within a 2oC temperature increase. Analysis indicates that the current pledges and commitments fall short of the goal. Furthermore, emissions of greenhouse gases in recent years have continued to rise rather than decline, and global emissions are approximately 14% above where they should be. On a positive note the report outlines that it is still feasible to bring emissions to levels consistent with the 2oC trajectory. 
• Author Naomi Klein has reported that some scientists have argued that in order to respect equity principles, emissions reductions by developed countries need to be deeper, implemented sooner than current commitments, and that carbon reductions should be managed through radical de-growth strategies. 

To ensure the world is on a climate safe trajectory Parties need to substantially increase both their short and long term targets for emissions reductions and to implement relevant actions. Despite the mounting evidence and need for urgent action, recent comments by Christina Figures, executive director of the UNFCCC to the Guardian Newspaper, indicated that negotiations would not be based upon scientifically derived carbon budgets as this would be too politically sensitive. The conference will consider a variety of agenda items including adaptation, finance, technology and mitigation, the latter includes reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+). Natural Justice will be following the conference and in particular discussions and outcomes related to REDD+ and how these could affect community rights issues.

National Consultation on Forest Rights Act and Protected Areas, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi

Source: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/rights-without-benefits 

From 11th to 12th November, 2013, Apritha Kodiveri, Vaneesha Jain and Revati Pandya (of the NJ India office) attended a two day consultation aimed at discussing Community Forest Rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (Forest Rights Act), 2006 (FRA). Members from various groups working on FRA issues in Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat and Karnataka attended, and updates and status of its implementation from respective states were shared and discussed. One of the overarching issues was the lack of implementation of processing claims largely based on administrative setbacks. Different state’s Forest Department officials’ individual desires for implementation of the FRA or processing of claims appear to be a major hurdle. 

The consultation brought to surface some key issues with notification of Critical Tiger Habitat and Critical Wildlife Habitat under the Protected Area network. The modification of rights in regards to these categories is ambiguous. Members of organisations attending the consultation presented case studies of specific hurdles while implementing the FRA. We (Arpitha, Vaneesha and Revati) presented issues with the recent draft rules on Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and gaps in relation to the FRA. Representatives of the Forest Department were present on the second day of the consultation to be able to put across key issues and questions raised during the preceding discussions. We plan to work with the FoC group in reading together the laws related to Protected Areas (PAs), and identifying gaps. 

Some key suggestions from the consultations were: 

• Need for correspondence between the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to enable consolidated guidelines for PA governance; 
• The need for the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2013 to correspond with the process of rights settlement and recognition under the FRA; 
• Ensure gram sabha consent before diversion of forest diversion in PAs; 
• Promoting a landscape approach which goes beyond PAs 

Heart of Borneo and Forever Sabah

The International Conference on Heart of Borneo’s Natural Capital: Unleashing their Potential for Sustainable Growth in Sabah was held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia from 11-12 November 2013. 

The two-day conference explored the future of the Heart of Borneo, including a focus on: REDD+; spatial planning to enhance conservation efforts; the role of NGOs; training and capacity building; research needs; and communication. 

The meeting had a dedicated session on Forever Sabah, a 25-year initiative to support Sabah’s transition to a diversified, equitable green economy. Speakers presented on Forever Sabah’s seven core areas, namely: forests; watersheds and communities; renewable energy; sustainable food and agriculture; waste water and soil; community tourism; and the Forever Sabah Institute. Natural Justice is the legal advisor to Forever Sabah and, in that context, Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) presented on the Scientific Consensus Statement. 

Overall the two-day conference illustrates the continued governmental, scientific, indigenous, and civil society support for transboundary and landscape-scale initiatives that take a multi-sectoral approach. Interestingly, Forever Sabah, as an initiative in its early stages, was called on to move beyond the development stage to begin implementation on projects across its seven focus areas. Similarly, the Heart of Borneo was largely congratulated for its progress so far, but was urged to better communicate its direct contribution to biodiversity and livelihoods.

ICCA meeting for Southern and East Africa discusses ICCA examples from the region

On 8 November Natural Justice and the ICCA Consortium co-convened a meeting near Cape Town, South Africa, on Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Controlled Territories and Conserved Areas (ICCAs) in Southern and East Africa, to identify examples and best practices from the region. 

Following a comprehensive introduction to ICCAs and their recognition under relevant international law by Natural Justice, two expert panels introduced and discussed ten individual examples of ICCAs in the region. 

On the basis of experiences from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania, the 25 participants from the region discussed various strategies and best practices for communities to protect their ICCAs. The discussions revolved around management of ICCAs, documentation of ICCAs, and strategic litigation. 

Regarding management, the experiences from Namibia and Ethiopia, in particular, highlighted the importance of developing strong community management structures that integrate customary governance while also supporting livelihood generation. 

The discussion on documentation focused on resources and land documentation ‘on paper’, for instance through geo-referencing, as well as on documentation ‘in the landscape’ through the establishment of signposts and other visual aids. Especially the case studies on pastoralist communities, sacred sites and large land areas with weak enforcement structures underlined the importance of documentation as key to obtaining formal recognition of the areas, as well to protecting areas from other external interferences. 

Finally, the discussions on strategic litigation emphasized the importance of directly involving communities in litigation-related stakeholder negotiations and adjudicative processes. Empowering communities to hold meetings on their own ground, to speak on their own behalf, and to determine the overall strategy is key to ensuring positive outcomes and to increasing their confidence as actors in their own rights. 

The participants from the region concluded that portraying community conserved areas as ICCAs can be key to linking different resources and land rights issues with livelihood objectives and intra-community processes. 

Lesle Jansen and Gino Cocchiaro presented for Natural Justice. A large number of country and international legal reviews of ICCAs are available here. The ICCA registry can be accessed here.

New Research Questions Effectiveness of RSPO Standards

"Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in the forests and peatlands of tropical nations worldwide, according to a new research publication released today. The study details the performance of 16 oil palm operations, many run by RSPO members, reporting on their failure to uphold human rights and environmental standards required.

'Since its founding eight years ago, the RSPO has adopted good standards, but too many member companies are not delivering on these paper promises,' said Norman Jiwan, Executive Director of Transformasi Untuk Keadilan Indonesia, a human rights organisation based in Jakarta. 'The RSPO could still meet this challenge if it provides remedies for member companies’ impacts on communities, but for that we need much stricter enforcement. The organisation’s very credibility is at stake.'

The book 'Conflict or consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads' details cases in which palm oil producers have failed to obtain permission from communities - a process required by the RSPO based on the UN mandate that is known as free, prior and informed consent. The findings also support accounts of the destructive impact that the palm oil developments are having on indigenous peoples and local communities." To download the report, edited by Marcus Colchester and Sophie Chao (Forest Peoples Programme), and related materials, please visit: http://www.forestpeoples.org/press-room.

Source: Forest Peoples Programme Press Release, 6 November 2013

Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection

From 5-7 November, 30 pioneering community and civil society experts gathered in the !khwa ttu San community centre outside Cape Town, South Africa, for the first Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection. 

The Symposium, co-convened by Natural Justice and Namati, facilitated an exchange of best practices on community empowerment for strengthening land and natural resources rights among twelve African countries and more than two dozen communities. 

The event set out to meet three interrelated objectives: 

1. Share best practices, tools and strategies for empowered community land and natural resource management and protection; 

2. Support each other to confront local and/or national challenges to community land and natural resources claims; and 

3. Brainstorm new and innovative forms of legal empowerment and build a cross-disciplinary community of practice that fosters continued dialogue and learning. 

The workshop consisted of a number of small group works and plenary discussions that addressed a number of interrelated challenges at the community governance level (community definition, governance and leadership, equity and gender, conservation and stewardship, community driven development) and regarding communities’ external interactions (investor-community relations, and policies laws and governments). Discussions revolved around specific case studies, project experiences and broader advocacy strategies.

Community protocols (www.communityprotocols.org) and Natural Justice’s Living Convention were both discussed as useful legal empowerment strategies. 

To ensure that the successful tactics and approaches that were identified during the dialogue are made available to a vast number of practitioners around the world, in a next step, Natural Justice and Namati will facilitate a practitioner-written guide to community legal empowerment for strengthening landscape rights. 

The guide will: 

1. Outline a range of community land and natural resources protection methodologies; 

2. Present the variety of positive strategies brainstormed at the conference; 

3. Highlight some of the most compelling, successful case studies presented; and 

4. Illustrate the most intractable obstacles faced and some suggested solutions. 

The over-arching aim of both the symposium and the guide is to support and train CSOs around the world to effectively facilitate community land protection efforts and, in the process, work with communities to improve intra-community governance, gender equity, and sustainable natural resource management. Sharing practitioners’ strategies is central to this effort. 

National Conference on Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights Held in Sabah, Malaysia

Credit: Colin Nicholas

From 6-7 November 2013, a national land conference was held in Sabah, Malaysia, to further explore Indigenous peoples' land rights following from the National Land Inquiry report of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM). The conference was organised by Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS, the national Indigenous peoples' network of Malaysia) and Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS Trust) with the support of the Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Action Network.

The conference included several expert presentations, panel discussions, and a resolution based on a number of constructive recommendations suggested by participants. Topics addressed included, among others: Indigenous peoples' rights in international law (with particular emphasis on self-determination and free, prior and informed consent), jurisprudence on Indigenous peoples' land rights, issues with conflicting claims in forest reserves, conservation areas and palm oil plantations, and mechanisms for redress and remedy such as tribunals, national commissions, and compensation schemes. For detailed real-time coverage of the conference, please visit JOAS' Facebook page and Twitter feed. Additional coverage is available in Free Malaysia Today.

International Workshop on ICCAs in Thika, Kenya

On November 5th 2013, Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended and presented at an International Workshop on ICCAs in Thika, Kenya. The workshop was hosted by the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. Participants included representatives from community organisations from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. The workshop provided an excellent opportunity for the different organizations to share lessons from the ICCA-related work they are doing across the world. 

Maya Sikand gave a presentation on International Law and Policy Frameworks and ICCAs. Information about the various international mechanisms that exist was welcomed as just one tool of many to support and protect ICCAs. Different participants were able to connect the international frameworks to projects or developments in their own countries. For example, some had engaged with REDD+ or the Nagoya Protocol. Other participants came from countries that have put in place laws to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and have participated in the work of implementing these laws. This presentation was followed by a discussion led by Adam Hussein Adam on the national legal context for Kenya, taking much from his recent report on the legal context for Sacred Natural sites in Kenya. 

A lot of attention was paid to Sacred Natural Sites as an example of an ICCA. In particular the idea, “use it or lose it,” garnered much controversy. Some participants vehemently disagreed with the suggestion as there may be valid reasons why a community does not/cannot regularly use a SNS that they still value greatly. Documentation, especially through tools like Biocultural Community Protocols, was discussed as a good answer to this problem. 

First Peoples release Indigenous Rights Risk Report

First Peoples have released their Indigenous Rights Risk Report. The report analyses 52 US-based extractive companies and 370 oil, gas, and mining sites that are situated on or near indigenous peoples' lands. Given findings that 92% of sites posed a medium to high risk to shareholders, the report proposes a new risk assessment tool. The report documents how conflicts or tensions between companies and indigenous communities can cause great losses. For example, one company First Peoples analyzed was Southwestern Energy. Protests by activists at one of their sites was costing them $60,000 a day.

Only 5% of the companies analyzed had an indigenous peoples policy, pointing out a serious gap for communities, companies and shareholders. The report warns that the risks of not having an indigenous peoples policy or respecting their rights are continuing to increase as more and more indigenous peoples rights are incorporated into national and international legal frameworks. At the same time, extractive industries increasingly find sites on indigenous peoples lands. The report suggests that the report can be a risk analysis tool and platform for indigenous peoples and investors to work together as shareholders to pressure companies to both respect indigenous peoples rights and maximise shareholder returns. The report is available for download in English here.

South-South Exchange Mechanism

On Thursday October 31st Maya Sikand of Natural Justice attended a meeting of the South-South Exchange Mechanism at the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo at the United Nations Office Nairobi. The UNEP South-South Exchange Mechanism is an online portal of case studies and solutions aimed at facilitating exchange and knowledge sharing on issues of sustainable development. Natural Justice have submitted a case study on Biocultural Community Protocols to the mechanism. Currently the case study is under expert review and should hopefully be included in the portal shortly. 

The main purpose of this meeting was to incorporate feedback from participating organizations into Phase II of the mechanism. Currently there are about 50 organizations globally working on case studies in diverse subject areas related to sustainable development, Academics review the cases, and it is suggested that Training Modules could be a potential next step. From the other organizations present it was suggested that a database to help connect organizations to relevant funders would also be a useful step for Phase II.

Natural Justice Attends Side Event During UN GA on the Role, Protection and Effective Participation of Human Rights Defenders in Development

On 29 October 2013, Eli Makagon attended a side-event held by the International Service for Human Rights at United Nations headquarters in New York. The side-event, held during the UN's ongoing 68th General Assembly meeting, was entitled The Role, Protection and Effective Participation of Human Rights Defenders in Development, and brought together panelists, including Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and Pavel Sulyandziga, Chair of the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, to discuss the issues. The panelists noted that very often, human rights defenders are people from Indigenous and local communities who are facing threats from large scale development. Among other things, Mr. Sulyandziga noted that international financial institutions such as the World Bank Group are an important factor in ensuring that the rights of Indigenous peoples are respected, as many of the major corporations involved in development are attempting to obtain loans from those institutions. Ms. Sekaggya reported that there were some positive developments, such as Australia's mining assessment initiatives and Columbia's national hydrocarbon agency assessment, as well as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (link).