Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- This week in review … Ten more countries join UNDP-Japan partnership on the Satoyama Initiative
- This week in review … Ugandan communities launch inventory of their intangible cultural heritage
- Resource: ICMM position statement on indigenous peoples and mining
- Resource: Background and analysis of the ABS Protocol
- This week in review … Article reviews Brazilian Federal Court decision on genetic resources and traditional knowledge
- This week in review … Grassroots initiative seeks to revive threatened languages of Bangladesh
- This week in review … B.C. First Nation revives controlled burning practices
This week in review … Ten more countries join UNDP-Japan partnership on the Satoyama Initiative Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:58 AM PDT Ten more countries join Japan-UNDP biodiversity partnership NEW YORK, USA: Communities in Bhutan, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Namibia and Niger will join the second phase of the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS), a partnership between the government of Japan and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), bringing the number of involved countries to twenty. The programme promotes inclusive, community-based approaches to the sustainable development of landscapes and seascapes, incorporating support for biodiversity conservation, human security, in particular food security, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Communities in Brazil, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Fiji, India, Malawi, Nepal, Slovakia and Turkey are already involved in designing and implementing landscape strategies for the realization of "societies in harmony with nature", as defined in the vision of the Satoyama Initiative. The programme is implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Environment of Japan, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Read the press release … Visit the COMDEKS project website … Read the COMDEKS newsletter … |
This week in review … Ugandan communities launch inventory of their intangible cultural heritage Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:56 AM PDT Four communities in Uganda launch inventory making of their intangible cultural heritage PARIS, FRANCE: With funds from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, a project was launched in July 2013 to enable four communities in Uganda to identify their living heritage, as an essential step for its safeguarding. Uganda's Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, which is responsible for its implementation, will establish a national strategy for inventorying intangible cultural heritage and organize a workshop in the capital in order to train local coordinators on the principle and methodologies of inventorying intangible heritage, while highlighting the importance of the fullest possible involvement of the communities concerned. Members from the Acholi, the Alur, the Basongora and the Ik communities will then be guided by the local coordinators in identifying and documenting their intangible cultural heritage during five months of fieldwork; the results will be included in a national inventory. Read the release … |
Resource: ICMM position statement on indigenous peoples and mining Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:53 AM PDT Indigenous Peoples and Mining This position statement, to come into effect in May 2015, sets out ICMM member companies' approach to engaging with indigenous peoples and to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and replaces ICMM's 2008 position statement. ICMM is currently comprised of 22 mining and mineral companies as well as 35 national and regional mining associations. It is recognized in the statement that "Indigenous Peoples have individual and collective rights and interests and it is internationally recognized that their rights should be protected by governments and respected by companies," while "States have the right to make decisions on the development of resources according to applicable national laws, including those laws implementing host country obligations under international law. Some countries have made an explicit consent provision under national or sub-national laws. In most countries however, neither Indigenous Peoples nor any other population group have the right to veto development projects that affect them", so FPIC should be regarded as a principle to be respected to the greatest degree possible in development planning and implementation." Commitments address: engaging with potentially impacted indigenous peoples with the objectives of ensuring that project development fosters respect for the rights and culture of indigenous people; minimizing impacts and ensuring sustainable benefits for indigenous peoples; understanding and respecting the rights, interests and perspectives of indigenous peoples regarding a project and its potential impacts; agreeing on appropriate engagement and consultation processes with potentially impacted indigenous peoples and relevant government authorities as early as possible during project planning, to ensure their meaningful participation in decision making; and collaborating with the responsible authorities to achieve outcomes consistent with the commitments, in situations where the government is responsible for managing indigenous peoples' interests in a way that limits company involvement. On FPIC, member companies commit to "work to obtain the consent of indigenous communities for new projects (and changes to existing projects) that are located on lands traditionally owned by or under customary use of indigenous peoples and are likely to have significant adverse impacts on indigenous peoples, including where relocation of indigenous peoples and/or significant adverse impacts on critical cultural heritage are likely to occur. Consent processes should focus on reaching agreement on the basis for which a project (or changes to existing projects) should proceed. These processes should neither confer veto rights to individuals or sub-groups nor require unanimous support from potentially impacted indigenous peoples (unless legally mandated). Consent processes should not require companies to agree to aspects not under their control." Furthermore, member companies commit to address the likelihood that differences of opinion will arise, which in some cases may lead to setbacks or delays in reaching a negotiated agreement in good faith. Where consent is not forthcoming despite the best efforts of all parties, in balancing the rights and interests of indigenous peoples with the wider population, the government might determine that a project should proceed and specify the conditions that should apply. According to a press release by the First Peoples Worldwide, the document provides loopholes for dodging indigenous consent and restricts some of the more progressive thinking of the 2008 position paper, which cautioned companies not to rely too heavily on national governments, which may have a history of dismissing indigenous peoples' identity, interests and rights as articulated in international conventions, and acknowledged an indigenous community's right to say no to a mining project. Instead, the 2013 policy allows member companies to rely on the good faith of the state and puts the ultimate decision in the hands of the state. Download the position brief [pdf] … Read the First Peoples Worldwide press release … |
Resource: Background and analysis of the ABS Protocol Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:51 AM PDT Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization: Background and Analysis This publication, which is a joint effort of various NGOs that followed the negotiation process, reviews the negotiating history of the Protocol, analyzes each article and makes recommendations for implementation at the national level. The editors agree that the Nagoya Protocol is a milestone rather than a finish line in the fight against biopiracy. Much work remains to be done, both on the national implementation, as well as in the development of international law. Download the report [pdf] … |
This week in review … Article reviews Brazilian Federal Court decision on genetic resources and traditional knowledge Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:48 AM PDT Recent Brazilian Federal Court Decision Involving Genetic Heritage and Traditional Knowledge CHICAGO, USA: This article reviews a decision delivered on 22 May 2013 by the Federal Court from the State of Acre in Brazil involving alleged illegal access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The Federal Public Ministry (FPM) filed a civil lawsuit against five companies that had developed soaps containing an oil having emollient properties obtained from the seed of a palm tree called "murumuru." Astrocaryum murumuru bears edible fruits and is native to the Amazon Rainforest. Murumuru butter extracted from the seeds may be used as a moisturizer. The FPM alleged that the use of moisturizing oils derived from murumuru is a part of the genetic heritage and associated traditional knowledge of the Ashaninka people (an indigenous group of people living in the rainforests of Peru and in the State of Acre Brazil). The Federal Judge ruled that there was no violation of the national legislation (Brazilian Provisional Measure No. 2.186-16 of August 23, 2001) because several of the defendant companies had not carried out any scientific research or technological development related to the genetic heritage that might be characterized as "access." The Judge reasoned that there had been no illegal access to genetic heritage or associated traditional knowledge since: the information and properties of murumuru were obtained from scientific documents published during the 1940s (in other words, this information was in the public domain); one of the companies obtained an authorization for accessing murumuru from another region, the State of Amazonas; and another company obtained murumuru oil from a manufacturer which has obtained such oil from the Ashaninka. Read the article … |
This week in review … Grassroots initiative seeks to revive threatened languages of Bangladesh Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:46 AM PDT First Person: Save a Language, Save a Culture WASHINGTON DC, USA: In this article, Tim Brookes describes how he started drawing attention to the problem of language loss and cultural erosion by carving scripts, including three scripts of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh: the Mro, Marma and Chakma. When he met Maung Nyeu, a member of the Marma people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, they set up a partnership to create and publish schoolbooks, to help save the languages that sustain the cultures of the Hill Tracts. This preservation project may become a model of how to reverse linguistic decline and the cultural collapse that goes with it. Read the article … |
This week in review … B.C. First Nation revives controlled burning practices Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:44 AM PDT B.C. First Nation sets fires to save bison BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA: A First Nation band is reviving the age-old practice of controlled burning in order to improve the health of forests and restore the population of the wood bison in a corner of northeastern B.C., in Canada. While it may seem counterintuitive, controlled burning can actually mitigate forest fires, by removing dry growth that in hot weather could lead to bigger, more damaging fires. The benefits of controlled burning have been documented in Australia's Western Desert. Read the article … |
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