Communities and Governance of Natural Resources: Natural Justice Works in Turkana

Turkana County, Kenya has been considered amongst the poorest in the country. However, recent oil and water discoveries as well as planned infrastructural developments have brought hope to the citizens of a better life but have also raised a number of critical social, economic and environmental concerns. These were discussed during a Friends of Lake Turkana hosted conference titled 'Towards a Governance Agenda: Harnessing Natural Resources, Communities and Development, which was held in Lodwar, Turkana from the 21-24th of October 2014.

The conference sought to strengthen multi stakeholder participation and engagement in order to ensure local participation in natural resource and infrastructural development. Participants at the meeting included representatives of county and national governments, oil companies, civil society and community representatives. Further information on the conference can be found on the Friends of Lake Turkana website.

Natural Justice is partnering with Friends of Lake Turkana to ensure that legislation and policy positively represent the needs of the citizens of Turkana, in particular its pastoralist communities, so that they are involved in decisions related to their lands, resource and knowledge.

Capacity building of Forest Rights Committees, Kutch, Gujarat

Natural Justice India has been working with pastoralists in Kutch, Gujarat and collaborating with a local organization, Sahjeevan. At present, the pastoral communities are facing a range of issues especially with access to resources. The different objectives and priorities for the stakeholders involved, in particular the Forest Department and increasingly the emerging industries in the Kutch region pose a threat to the communities and their traditional livelihoods. In the face of such issues, Natural Justice has been working to secure land rights and traditional grazing routes through the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2008.

From the 11th to 22nd September, Revati Pandya, Sandeep Mudhar, Stella James and Alphonsa Jojan from the India team went on a field visit to meet with the communities and their newly formed Forest Rights Committees (FRC). These committees, under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) Rules, 2008 are to play a crucial role in claiming for rights over traditional resources, in particular the forested grazing lands. The aim of the visit was to build capacity of the FRC members and provide tools for them to better understand and effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities.

Workshop Design

The workshop consisted of three parts: a discussion on knowledge about the FRA to understand the current level of mobilisation; a mapping exercise to engage with the community and gain more information about community resources and identify any potential issues faced by members with regards to accessing these resources, and lastly; an overview of the claim-making process with the use of visual tools from the paralegal toolkit as well as the FRA “Claim” Game.

The workshop was conducted in 8 villages and, overall, was well received. The visual tools were effective for some individuals in communicating complex legalities. Visuals from the FRA puzzle game were also a good, interactive means to relate resource use to the nature of evidence required for the claim making process of the FRA. The mapping exercise and discussion on the FRA highlighted some essential aspects to be included into the work.

Current Status

From the discussions and mapping exercise it became apparent that initiating the claim-making process requires further research into the community dynamics and their traditional systems of resource management. Most villages use communal forest areas, known as rakhals. This sharing of resources amongst different villages complicates the initiating the claim-making process as the question of filing for joint claims over rakhals or independent community rights for each village arises.

Moreover, the impacts of the industries and the issues faced by the community as a result emerged in the discussions. This will be an interesting domain for Natural Justice as other legal options beyond the FRA can potentially be explored.

Next Steps

In order to move forward with the FRA claim-making process, deeper research on the specific aspects of communities and their resource use is required. Similarly, visual tools and outreach materials such as posters can be used to  increase the level of awareness and mobilization amongst communities, and to build capacity of the FRC members

Furthermore, it would be useful to discuss interests and capacities for identification of paralegals/community mobilizers when meeting with the community to create a direct information-sharing channel and strengthen the relationship with the community. Also, starting research on the legal aspect of industries will be highly relevant in Kutch and can be used to assist communities secure their rights over their lands.

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.

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. 

Natural Justice Attends Twelfth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

The Twelfth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) opened on Monday, 20 May 2013 at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York.  The opening address was delivered by Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Mr Wu Hongbo, who also facilitated the ceremonial handing over of the baton of chairmanship by Grand Chief Edward John of the Tl’azt’en Nation in northern British Columbia, Canada to Mr  Kanyinke Sena of the Ogiek Community in Kenya .  Mr Sena is the first African elected to serve as chair for the UNPFII.

Over 2000 indigenous delegates are expected to attend the two-week meeting to address indigenous issues around health, education, culture and human rights.  A half-day discussion on the Africa region, in particular, the study on resilience, traditional knowledge and capacity-building for pastoralist communities in Africa  as well as a review of the World Bank operational policies are among the other topics to be discussed. The various side-events held on the first day of the session included topics on violence against women, the institutionalisation of inter-cultural reproductive health for indigenous women and youth, training on effective and meaningful participation in the the UNPFII, and the screening of a documentary film produced by an indigenous filmmaker. 

Pastoralist BCP Programme Planning - Nairobi

Natural Justice's Gino Cocchiaro met with Life Africa Trust, Kivulini Trust and the Marsabit Accountability Forum in Nairobi, Kenya on 14 February. The meeting was to plan the two-year programme, supported by the GEF Small Grants Programme, that is being coordinated by the organisations to support the Borana and Samburu pastoralist communities to strengthen community governance systems through the development of community protocols with the aim of enhancing resource management and securing community land. Throughout the project Natural Justice will partner with Kenyan lawyers to build the capacity of the Borana and Samburu to proactively claim their resource and land rights.