Traditional Knowledge Bulletin |
- Meeting review: UNPFII 12
- This week in review … Traditional knowledge can enable precision farming, researcher says
- This week in review … UNESCO meeting in New Zealand focuses on traditional calendars
- Resource: Article on community participation and benefits in REDD+
- Resource: Book on common pools of genetic resources and TK
Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:48 AM PDT UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, twelfth session The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII) ended its twelfth session with calls for providing better health care and education; recognizing collective land and resource rights, especially in multilateral banks' safeguard policies; enshrining "culture" as the fourth pillar of sustainable development; and strengthening indigenous peoples' rights in Africa. At the opening session, Néstor Osorio, President of the Economic and Social Council, said that, although much indigenous traditional knowledge had been undermined and destroyed "through centuries of genocide, language loss, discrimination and forced migration", indigenous peoples remained "the custodians" of many of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. For centuries, indigenous peoples "shared their knowledge with others as collective goods for the benefit of humankind, not as private property to be protected and sold," he said, noting that there was a growing number of consumer products, such as cosmetics, medicines and handicrafts, derived from indigenous traditional knowledge that were sold by private corporations for profit, while the original owners of that knowledge saw little or no benefits. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, called on the UN system to harmonize its processes and programmes relating to indigenous peoples and ensure their activities reinforce the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). He warned that any new multilateral agreements on the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, such as those negotiated under WIPO, should not undermine existing international standards on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum forwarded a series of draft decisions to ECOSOC, including agreement to rename itself the "Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" and a call for indigenous peoples to have equal participation in the drafting of all documents regarding the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in September 2014. On health, the Forum called for a focus on ensuring the sexual and reproductive rights of indigenous peoples, and addressing the high suicide rate among indigenous youth. On indigenous peoples in Africa, the Forum recognized that groups identified as comprising indigenous peoples on the African continent have suffered, and continue to suffer, particular injustices, including the denial of their basic rights, such as the right to recognition and the right to lands, territories and related resources. Such denial has led to the eviction of indigenous peoples from their lands and the erosion of their hunting and other traditional occupations and lifestyles, thereby threatening their very survival and well-being as peoples. The text stresses the need to raise awareness about indigenous peoples on the continent, and for robust and effective measures, including legislative measures, to ensure recognition of and respect for their human rights; and encourages states to adopt a rights-based approach to conservation and to ensure that national policies regarding indigenous pastoralism complied with UNDRIP. Following a one-day dialogue with international financial institutions and regional development banks addressing their policies for engagement with indigenous peoples, including discussion of how the principle of free, prior and informed consent is implemented, the document notes that the development projects financed by those institutions had significant impacts on the rights and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, and recommends that international financial institutions unequivocally acknowledge the collective right of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources in their safeguard policies and in all development project contexts. It calls upon them to ensure that the projects they funded fully respected the rights of indigenous peoples in their implementation. The thirteenth session is expected to be held from 21-23 May 2014 in New York, with focus on the theme of good governance. Visit the meeting webpage … Read the UN background release … Read the Secretary-General's statement … Read the Special Rapporteur's statement … Read the UN closing press release … Visit the media and news webpage of the session … Read a REDD-Monitor article on conflicting views on REDD … |
This week in review … Traditional knowledge can enable precision farming, researcher says Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:45 AM PDT Traditional knowledge "can enable precision farming" LONDON, UK: Crop yields could be improved by applying traditional knowledge to mirror precision techniques such as using the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) to analyze farm land, says Margaret Oliver, a visiting research fellow at the University of Reading's Soil Research Centre in the UK. In a paper in Significance, she says geostatistical analyses of data from sensors both on land and from satellites are "becoming increasingly standard for all kinds of crop production and will be of crucial importance in the near future as the world faces increasing issues of food security." Such data can be used to build a map of soil biochemistry, which can help farmers improve crop yields and resistance to disease. The cost of technology, which can also include high-tech farming machinery, has so far kept precision farming methods mostly in developed nations, although emerging economies are taking it up. But Oliver says smallholder farmers can instead apply their traditional knowledge. "By working on the same area for years, they can map the soil like GPS would do, knowing which corners are more or less productive, which are drier or wetter," she tells SciDev.Net. Read the article … |
This week in review … UNESCO meeting in New Zealand focuses on traditional calendars Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:43 AM PDT Experts link local knowledge with climate change AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Co-hosted by the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and UNESCO's Climate Frontlines programme, the meeting "Cycles of Change or Te hurihuri o te Ao – Traditional Calendars for Informing Climate Change Policies" is held from 4-7 June 2013, in Auckland, New Zealand. The meeting is bringing together local, indigenous and scientific knowledge holders with a particular interest in seasonal calendars and environmental change, including indigenous peoples from New Zealand and Pacific communities, and scientific researchers across multiple disciplines. Read the article … Visit the UNESCO event webpage … |
Resource: Article on community participation and benefits in REDD+ Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:41 AM PDT Community Participation and Benefits in REDD+: A Review of Initial Outcomes and Lessons The advent of initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhance forest carbon stocks (REDD+) in developing countries has raised much concern regarding impacts on local communities. To inform this debate, this article analyzes the initial outcomes of those REDD+ projects that systematically report on their socio-economic dimensions. To categorize and compare projects, researchers develop a participation and benefits framework that considers REDD+'s effects on local populations' opportunities (jobs, income), security (of tenure and ecosystem services), and empowerment (participation in land use and development decisions). They find material benefits, in terms of jobs and income, to be, thus far, modest. On the other hand, many projects are helping populations gain tenure rights. A majority of projects are obtaining local populations' free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). However, for those projects interacting with multiple populations, extent of participation and effects on forest access are often uneven. Read the abstract … Download the full text [pdf] … |
Resource: Book on common pools of genetic resources and TK Posted: 05 Jun 2013 04:39 AM PDT Common Pools of Genetic Resources: Equity and Innovation in International Biodiversity Law Managing genetic resources and traditional knowledge is critical to one of the most significant issues facing the global environment: maintenance of biodiversity. Written by a team of expert academics and practitioners in the field, chapters start from existing pools and discuss how they could be further developed to cope with the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing. Chapters address common pools of genetic resources and related traditional and modern knowledge at the local, national and international level, as well as transitional approaches. Further information … |
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