Natural Justice and ICCA Consortium Host Event at EMRIP-7

On Monday 7 July, Natural Justice and the ICCA Consortium co-hosted a lunch-time event at the 7th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP-7) on access to justice, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Indigenous peoples' and community conserved areas (ICCAs).

Holly Jonas (Natural Justice and ICCA Consortium International Policy Assistant) provided an introduction to ICCAs and access to justice. Emma Courtine (ICCA Consortium Programme Assistant) and Golshan Chahian (Cenesta, pictured at right) presented on a process for implementing rights-based approaches with the Indigenous nomadic tribes of Iran, which includes ICCA recognition, biodiversity conservation, sustainable livelihoods, and re-empowerment. On the latter in particular, Cenesta has a legal work group that aims to achieve nomad-friendly national laws and consists of four main bodies: tribal elders with knowledge of customary laws as legal advisors, lawyers, advocacy, and barefoot lawyers. Through this process, for the first time in national legislation history, Indigenous peoples and local communities in Iran provided suggestions for review and revisions of key national laws, which led to the inclusion of a new chapter on peoples’ participation and rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Andrew ‘Atama’ Kitama (PACOS Trust) showed a short film and spoke about Native Customary Rights in Sabah, Malaysia, and efforts to engage in international processes such as the Universal Periodic Review. He outlined the intensive pressures Indigenous peoples face from mainstream ‘development’ programmes that aim to elevate Malaysia’s status to a developed country by 2020 but are in actuality creating larger gaps and further marginalisation. Subsistence farming is still seen as unsustainable and incompatible with the broader development agenda and the once-lauded Communal Title provision in the Land Ordinance has been distorted into a fast-tracked approval process that in effect forces communities into joint ventures, usually with oil palm companies. He lamented the lack of mechanisms for Indigenous peoples to be genuinely involved in decision-making and upholding political accountability and underscored the importance of communities’ ownership over their futures, rather than simply being ‘beneficiaries’ in misguided poverty eradication programmes.

Joseph Itongwa (Programme d’Intégration et de Développement du Peuple Pygmée au Kivu) and Christian Chatelain (ICCA Consortium Regional Co-coordinator for Central and West Africa) presented a short film on traditional knowledge schools among the Indigenous peoples in the Bambuti Forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They also spoke of the recognition of ICCAs as a matter of justice and respect and the importance of supporting conservation practices emerging from traditional rites of passage.

The presentations were followed by an active discussion with those in attendance, which included the following issues, among others:

• The critical importance of appropriate recognition of customary lands and traditional institutions and the bottom-up development of legal options and laws and policies that reflect and are adapted to local realities;
• The need to build the capacity of judges and lawyers on related international law and jurisprudence, and to build pressure for implementation of landmark judgments such as Endorois through lobbying at different levels;
• Concerns with militarisation of protected areas (for example, due to poaching) and the dispossession of people from their territories through conservation initiatives;
• The need for barefoot lawyers and community-accessible information (legal and non-legal) to demystify the law;
• The role of Article 26 of UNDRIP as key for implementation and recognition of Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories;
• The status and situation of the Indigenous Tatars of Crimea (given the current conflict with Russia) and the erosion of their collective rights and identity; and
• The deep-seated roots of ICCAs and their role in reclaiming identities, histories and cultures, and that peoples and communities themselves, not governments or NGOs, need to identify and uphold good practices for ICCAs.

Natural Justice and ICCA Host Side Event at SBSTTA 18

On June 26, 2014, Natural Justice and the ICCA Consortium held a side event during SBSTTA 18 on Indigenous peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs) and how they can help in achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The side event focused in particular on Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs), a type of ICCA that encompasses coastal and ocean territories and areas. This topic was particularly relevant given SBSTTA 18 Agenda Item 4 on marine and coastal biodiversity (link to agenda).

The side event featured two speakers, Onel Marsadule, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Promotion of the Indigenous Knowledge, and Taghi Farvar, President of the ICCA Consortium. Onel's presentation focused on the Kuna Yala people of Panama, whose territory includes a large marine ecosystem on Panama's Caribbean coast. Onel noted that the Kuna people have their own system of governance for the protection of marine and coastal biodiversity of their territory. For the Kuna, the importance of protecting marine resources and ecosystems is not only food dependency, but also on a holistic, cultural and spiritual relationship with the marine ecosystems. The Kuna have codified their customary laws into a written text, and one provision requires any project or activity affecting natural resources and biodiversity (which would include marine resources and biodiversity) to have an environmental impact study. He concluded by observing that it is essential to recognize indigenous resource management of marine ecosystems and called on Parties to strengthen customary laws and practices of conservation and traditional institutions.

Taghi discussed marine ICCAs in Iran, and highlighted the contribution that ICCAs can make to all of the Targets, in particular Target 11 regarding equitably managed areas. He noted several different kinds of marine ICCAs, which include coral reefs, mangrove forests, and coastal wetlands. Communities have used participatory mapping to identify ICCAs that include these and other marine features in the Persian Gulf & Oman Sea. Taghi also noted the ways in which communities in Iran have gone about obtaining recognition for their ICCAs. Rather than waiting for the government to recognize ICCAs, a bottom up assessment process has been developed to assess territorial, ecological and governance aspects of a potential ICCA. Once the assessment process has been completed, and the community has determined that an ICCA exists, that decision is then sent to the government to inform it of the community's decision. In this way, communities exercise control over the process and are actively involved, rather than waiting for the government to decide on classification.

Overall, the side event highlighted the importance of ICCAs to achieving the Aichi Targets, and made clear that ICCAs are important not just for terrestrial areas and territories, but marine and coastal ones as well.

UNPFII 13 Side Event – Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories & Areas (ICCAs)

On Wednesday 14 May 2014, the GEF Small Grants Programhosted a side event jointly with UNDP, Natural Justice, the ICCA Consortium, WAMIP, UNINOMAD Iran and Cenesta to address ICCAs and how they support appropriate governance in line with Articles 3 to 6 and 46 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration). The event highlighted experiences from the field, with case studies from Iran, Chile, and Australia.

Natural Justice’s Jael Makagon opened the presentations by providing an overview of Article 3 to 6 and 46 of the UN Declaration, which are the subject of the theme of this year’s Permanent Forum. He emphasised the importance of Article 3, which affirms Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, and highlighted tension within the UN Declaration regarding the parameters of this right. He also noted that ICCAs serve as the embodiment of exercising the rights set forth in Articles 3 to 6. 

Ari Gorring of Kimberley Land Council discusses
indigenous protected areas in Australia

The next three presenters from Iran, Chile, and Australia spoke on the challenges and successes of the development and implementation of ICCAs in their respective regions. Dr. Taghi Farvar highlighted the importance of obtaining appropriate recognition of ICCAs. An important element that has been crucial to success in Iran is the self-declaration by nomadic communities of their ICCAs independent of the government. This is important because it is often difficult to determine which government agency should be approached to recognize ICCAs, and self-declaration allows communities to take the process into their own hands. Juan Carlos Tonko, leader of the Kawesqar People, spoke on the challenges facing his community in the very southern tip of Chile, that has long been utilising the resources of the sea. Mr. Tonko spoke about how their community has been expelled from a protected area and of recent collaborations with scientists conducting research, which next to mapping of fauna, flora and animal species included noting the original names of the region as a first step of reclaiming the territory. Finally, Ari Gorring presented on the experience of the Kimberley Land Council in Northwest Australia. In this case, the communities face many challenges in their efforts to determine indigenous territories and seeking sustainable partnerships that are not reliant on government. Ms. Gorring spoke of their model of generating enterprise based on local values and is not reliant on government resources.

Finally, Kanyinke Sena from Kenya commented on these case studies noting how ICCAs can help communities to realize the rights set forth in the UN Declaration. He also shared some examples from Kenya highlighting the continuing conflict between the government and ICCAs / collectively controlled areas and territories. While communities are still being expelled from government controlled protected areas, however, Kanyinke highlighted the potential of community co-management systems as a first step in the right direction.

Community Protocols Featured in Land Watch Asia Skill-share

The Land Watch Asia campaign of the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC) hosted a skill-share and learning session on 17 January at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. It took place immediately following the Asian People’s Tribunal and included participants from a range of ANGOC partners across the region. The session focused on sharing community experiences with threats to their land rights, sharing existing mechanisms for protecting land rights, and drawing out effective strategies for defending communities’ land rights.

Following opening remarks by facilitator Catherine Liamzon (ANGOC), Dr. Sadeka Halim (Information Commission Bangladesh) presented on the Right to Information Act, underscoring the fundamental importance of access to information in securing further procedural and substantive rights. Sam Pedragosa (Philippine Association for Intercultural Development and Southeast Asia regional coordinator for the ICCA Consortium; pictured above) then gave a critical overview of community experiences with free, prior and informed consent in the Philippines, with particular emphasis on how the spirit of this process has been manipulated by project proponents (primarily mining companies) for their own benefit and to the detriment of the Indigenous peoples and communities concerned, despite being enshrined in the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act.

Finally, Holly Jonas (Natural Justice) presented on community protocols as an adaptive and community-determined instrument that can be used in a range of legal and policy contexts (including land rights) to address various threats and opportunities in pursuit of social and environmental justice. Questions and discussion focused primarily on balancing support for customary institutions and traditional practices while also securing human rights, particularly of women. Many thanks to ANGOC for the opportunity to join this session and we look forward to working together more in the future!

ICCA Consortium and Natural Justice at WILD 10

From the 8th to the 10th of October the ICCA Consortium representatives and Natural Justice attended the 10th World Wilderness Congress, Wild 10, in Salamanca, Spain. Approximately 1500 people, including indigenous peoples and local communities, conservation organizations, government and business representatives attended the conference during which experiences were shared on conservation measures across the globe. An Indigenous and Community Lands and Seas Forum was also held during which members of the ICCA Consortium spoke of their territories and resources and the challenges faced to protect and conserve them. 

Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) was invited to speak about community protocols and highlight examples as to how such protocols are being used to foster dialogue and agreement between communities and protected area authorities. 

Gino also presented on biocultural rights during the Nature Rights Stream. During his presentation, Gino highlighted the advances that communities have made making in international and national law to advance their biocultural or stewardship rights. He also advocated for deeper partnerships between protected area authorities and communities that recognise the rights and roles of communities to steward their territories and areas.

International Meeting of the ICCA Consortium

The Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA) Consortium held its annual international meeting, including its General Assembly from the 4th-6th of October, in Valdeavellano de Tera, Spain. 

Natural Justice is a founding member of the ICCA Consortium and Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) and Lesle Jansen (Natural Justice) are its International Policy Adviser and Co-ordinator for Southern and East Africa respectively. 

During the 3 days, members of the Consortium from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe shared their experiences on work with ICCAs. Among the discussions were experiences from Philippines and Europe in which communities have been able to successfully protect their ICCAs.


Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) presented on and discussed ICCAs and the Aichi targets as well as facilitating a meeting organized by the Global Forest Coalition on its Community Conservation Resilience Assessment. Participants of the meeting also held discussions on the future activities of the Consortium, including supporting member activities and attendance at international meetings relevant to the legal protection of ICCAs.

Meeting participants also had the pleasure of travelling to and meeting with community members of the Valdeavellano area to learn of their efforts to manage and protect their local environments.

Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas in Kenya

On the 14^th of June 2013, Natural Justice participated in a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya on Indigenous Peoples Community Conserved Territories and Areas(ICCA). The meeting was organized by the ICCA Network in Kenya, with support of by the GEF Small Grants Programme, and attended by a number of civil society representatives in Kenya. Participants in the meeting heard from Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, General Secretary of the ICCA Consortium, Kanyinke Sena, a indigenous peoples rights lawyer and member of the UNPFII and Clement Lenachuru, Commissioner of the Kenyan National Land Commission. The Kenyan ICCA Network also discussed with participants their plans to raise awareness on ICCA’s and highlight various Kenyan ICCA examples over the next year. Natural Justice, as members and southern and eastern African representatives the Consortium have been asked to support to the ICCA Network in this process.

ICCA Toolkit Now Available

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has recently released a new resource entitled "A Toolkit to Support Conservation by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities: Building capacity and sharing knowledge for Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs)". The toolkit documents sixteen case studies and a diverse set of innovative tools and approaches developed to help Indigenous peoples and local communities address critical challenges that affect their natural and cultural resources. The resources are organised around five key themes: documentation, management planning, monitoring and evaluation, communication, and finance and values. It also sets out tools to support the effectiveness and viability of ICCAs as governance structures for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. Our review of international law and jurisprudence, the Convention on Biological Diversity's Technical Series No. 64 on recognising and supporting ICCAs, and the toolkit and website on biocultural community protocols are highlighted as tools for legal empowerment and securing legal recognition.

In addition to UNEP-WCMC, the toolkit was developed with the support of and in collaboration with the UN Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme, the Government of Norway, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and the ICCA Consortium. It is available for download in English here.

ICCA Consortium Holds Mesoamerican Regional Meeting in Guatemala

Courtesy of Eli Makagon

On March 23, 2013, the ICCA Consortium held a Mesoamerican regional meeting in Totonicapán, Guatemala. The meeting, held from March 23 to March 27, brought together representatives from a range of different organizations and community groups working on ICCAs in the region. Presentations were made on efforts underway in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador regarding ICCAs. Participants shared experiences regarding successes they have had and challenges they continue to face. In Tarcoles, Costa Rica, for example, a local fishing community has created a marine reserve where decisions are made at the local level, with government oversight, that has helped increase fish stocks in the area. Other ICCAs in the region have had varying levels of success in obtaining recognition and enforcing local rules. The biggest challenges remain government actions without prior consultation of those affected and lack of respect for customary methods of conservation management.

Several other issues were also addressed at the meeting, including the United Nation’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programs, the effects of payments for ecosystem services that governments in the region are increasingly offering, and the selection of an ICCA Consortium coordinator for the Mesoamerican region. Eli Makagon, with the assistance of Joseph Kuper, presented on the international legal landscape surrounding ICCAs, noting that ILO 169 is a particularly effective treaty in the region given that twelve Latin American countries have ratified it. At the close of the meeting a public event was held to share results and ways forward. It is clear from the experiences shared that despite significant challenges, a robust system of ICCAs exists in the Mesoamerica region and that more and more communities are seeking and obtaining recognition of their conserved areas.

Major Geotagged Report on Oil Palm in Palawan, the Philippines

Ancestral Land/Domain Watch (ALDAW) has just released a major report on the environmental and social impact of oil palm expansion on the Palawan UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Philippines, with the support of Rainforest Rescue and the World Rainforest Movement. Part I of the report contains information about the biocultural diversity and Indigenous peoples of Palawan, the institutional and legislative framework for the oil palm industry, company strategies to gain official permits and control, the status of plantations in several municipalities, civil society opposition, and ongoing challenges and future trends. It then provides recommendations to a range of key actors, including the national and provincial governments, the Philippine Coconut Authority and Department of Agriculture, the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, international organisations and donors, and civil society in the Philippines.

Part II of the report contains samples of geo-coded photos of oil palm locations and impacted areas (geotagging is the process of associating photos with specific geographic locations using GPS coordinates).

ALDAW is a Philippines-based advocacy campaign network of Indigenous peoples defending their ancestral land and resources from mining corporations, oil palm companies, top-down conservation schemes and all forms of imposed development, on Palawan Island and a fellow member of the Indigenous peoples' and community conserved territories and areas (ICCA) Consortium. Please visit ALDAW's Vimeo page, read other geo-tagged reports from Gantong and Bulanjao (Palawan), and consider signing the following petitions:

• To stop the plundering of Indigenous territories,
• To stop palm oil expansion in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and
• "No to Mining in Palawan".

Launch of the Philippines ICCA Consortium

In the Philippines, the future of conservation is directly linked to Indigenous peoples. Recent spatial analysis shows that the vast majority of the country's remaining forests and key biodiversity areas are located within Indigenous peoples' ancestral domains. From 19-21 February, Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI, the national Indigenous peoples' coalition of the Philippines) and the Philippine Association for Inter-cultural Development (PAFID) co-hosted a workshop to establish the foundation for a national consortium on Indigenous peoples' and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs). This initiative was in direct response to the Manila Declaration, which emphasises Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands and resources and the strengthening of traditional governance systems and sets out guidelines for Indigenous peoples, government and support organisations. The Declaration was agreed at the first national conference on ICCAs, held in March 2012 at the University of the Philippines.

Workshop participants were comprised of Indigenous leaders from the 7 ethnographic regions of the Philippines. Dr. Grazia Borrini-Feyerbend (Global Coordinator, ICCA Consortium), Samson Pedragosa (PAFID and ICCA Consortium Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator), and Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice and ICCA Consortium International Policy Assistant) served as resource people on successes, challenges, and lessons learned from ICCAs around the world and in international law and policy. Other speakers included Honourable Teddy Baguilat (Chairman, Committee on National Cultural Communities, House of Representatives of the Philippines), Folay Eleazar (Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources), and Toshihiro Tanaka (Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP).

Many thanks to KASAPI, PAFID and PAWB for their generous hospitality and congratulations to the Indigenous leaders on this exciting initiative!

ICCA Consortium Newsletter Recaps 2012

The Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCA) Consortium has released the third edition of its newsletter, which focuses on Consortium events and activities from the final months of 2012. The newsletter blends coverage of work at the international and regional level with activities in specific countries and locations. The newsletter highlights the continued emergence of the ICCA Consortium, especially at the 11th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, as an influential actor representing various coalition partners supporting ICCAs. The steady expansion of national-level work from supporting individual ICCAs to developing nation-wide coalitions is also emphasised. Finally, the success of Consortium members in forcing policy conversations on conservation to always consider ICCAs, something unimaginable 10 years ago, is underscored. 

The newsletter can be downloaded here.

ICCA Consortium Reports from IUCN Congress and CBD COP11 Available

Two participants' reports are now available from the ICCA Consortium that detail the events and outcomes of the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress (IUCN WCC), held in Jeju in September 2012, and the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP11), held in Hyderabad in October 2012. Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) co-authored the reports in her role as the Consortium's International Policy Assistant.

The IUCN WCC report is available here and more information about the ICCA Consortium's activities in Jeju can be explored here. The CBD COP11 report is available here; more information about the Consortium's activities in Hyderabad can be found here; and an overview of key COP11 outcomes for Indigenous peoples and local communities is available here.