This week in review … “Protect the environment to protect human rights,” UN experts urge on Earth Day

“If we fail our environment, we fail to protect our human rights,” warn UN experts on Earth Day
OHCHR release, 22 April 2013

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: “We continue to fail to protect and conserve our environment in many respects, often with dire consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, despite great progress in some areas,” today warned a group of United Nations independent experts on the occasion of Earth Day 2013. “When our rivers are being depleted and polluted, the livelihoods of many vulnerable groups are put in jeopardy,” explained UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, “including the ability for those groups to access sufficient and safe drinking water, grow food, and harvest from traditional fisheries.” “When mining and other extractive activities take place within indigenous territories without adequate environmental safeguards”, said UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, “a wide array of those communities’ human rights are usually violated or put at risk.” “These are but a few examples of the many challenges continuing to face the international community due to the deterioration of the environment,” the group of experts said. “Now it is time to take this occasion to recognize the fundamental link between a clean and healthy environment to the realization of a wide array of fundamental human rights,” they said. “It is also essential that the international community recognize the critical role that human rights law can play to ensure environmental protection.” Read the release …

 

This week in review … UNESCO book on water and cultural diversity made available online

Now available online: Water, Cultural Diversity, and Global Environmental Change: Emerging Trends, Sustainable Futures?
UNESCO press release, 21 December 2012

PARIS, FRANCE: Published by Springer in December 2011, this 560 page-book edited by Barbara Rose Johnston, Lisa Hiwasaki, Irene J. Klaver, Ameyali Ramos Castillo and Veronica Strang is now available online. A product of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme project on Water and Cultural Diversity, the book represents an effort to examine the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining, and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It is divided into five parts. Part I explores water’s fundamental place in life and articulates the “culture of water” and the environmental consequences of human relationships with water. Part II considers the “culture of water” through an explicit focus on traditional ecological knowledge and water resource management. Part III examines current patterns of water resource management in various ecoregions and geopolitical contexts. Part IV considers the changing and possible future dynamics of intersections between water, biodiversity and cultural diversity, with a critical focus on the lessons learned from the past several decades of hydrodevelopment. Part V sketches out alternative scenarios for the future, arguing that a sustainable approach to water resource development must be one that sustains the cultural and biological diversity of life. Download the book [pdf] … Read the UNESCO press release … Read the 2011 TK Bulletin post on the book …

 

This week in review … Native communities in Peru take charge of environmental monitoring

Native Communities in Peru Take Charge of Environmental Monitoring
IPS, 12 December 2012

LIMA, PERU: At the end of every month, with the skill of an environmental engineer, Wilson Sandi prepares a work plan that will be used by Achuar indigenous people, like him, to document the scars left by 40 years of oil drilling in the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto. Sandi is the coordinator of the Environmental Monitoring Programme created by the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO), which focuses its efforts on Lot 1AB and Lot 8, operated by the Argentine oil company Pluspetrol Norte. Using GPS equipment, photographs and video recordings, the monitors document oil industry-related environmental liabilities that date back many years, as well as new oil leaks in rivers, streams and soils on which indigenous communities depend for their survival. Since FECONACO began implementing the programme in 2006, 120 leaks have been documented. Together with two other indigenous organizations, the Quechua Indigenous Federation of the Pastaza River (FEDIQUEP) and the Federation of Native Communities of the Alto Tigre River (FECONAT), they have discovered environmental liabilities that even the government had not detected, and which are therefore not included in official records. Read the article …

 

Meeting review: Third IPSI Global Conference

Third IPSI Global Conference
6-7 October 2012 (Hyderabad, India)

The third Global Conference of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative was held back-to-back with the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 11) under the theme “Contribution to Achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets”. In addition to the IPSI Assembly and the Public Forum, held from 6-7 October 2012, a series of IPSI-related events were held from 9-12 October 2012 over the course of CBD COP 11.

The Assembly heard a report of Steering Committee (SC) activities delivered by its Chair, Prof. Alfred Oteng-Yeboah and welcomed new SC members, including the International Tropical Timer Organization (ITTO), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation Community Agrobiodiversity Research Centre, University of Sarajevo Faculty of Science, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Representatives of Japan’s Fukui Prefecture made a formal offer to host the Fourth IPSI Global Conference in September 2013.

The Public Forum held three working group sessions on: indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes; creating synergy between traditional knowledge and modern science; and multi-stakeholder collaboration towards sustainable production and consumption. Each working group discussion was linked to corresponding Aichi biodiversity targets.

On 9 October, the “IPSI Evening” convened under the theme “Achievement and further development of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative.” A keynote address was delivered by Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi, UNU Vice-Rector, under the theme “IPSI: Perspectives on Sustainable Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes”. During a subsequent short session, several IPSI members delivered messages. Read the report, including links to presentations …

 

Resource: GWF discussion paper on the cultural politics of transboundary water governance

Indigenous space, citizenry, and the cultural politics of transboundary water governance
Emma S. Norman
Global Water Forum Discussion Paper 1248, November 2012

This paper explores the cultural politics of water governance through the analysis of a new governing body created by indigenous leaders in the Pacific Northwest of North America – the Coast Salish Aboriginal Council, an example involving transboundary environmental governance for, and by, 70 tribes spanning the US-Canadian border. The paper outlines some of the outcomes of the creation of the Council, including pairing with federal agencies to collect water quality data, and presenting a unified voice on issues such as management of anadromous salmon. The author argues that inclusion of cultural politics in the understanding of environmental resources will provide a more nuanced approach to the study of transboundary environmental governance. Such considerations have important implications for the study of natural resource management and indigenous communities, whose traditional homelands are often bifurcated by contemporary border constructions. The paper finds that the aggregation of historically connected tribes and bands for the shared benefit of environmental protection and cultural reunification is a first step in reclaiming space and reconstructing traditional governance mechanisms. Download the paper [pdf] …

 

Resource: Book on indigenous knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge
Sarah Johnson (ed), Themes in Environmental History 3, The White Horse Press, 2012 | ISBN: 978-1-874267-68-3

This book investigates how indigenous peoples from various cultures interact with, and conceptualize their environments, past and present. It offers accounts of indigenous conservation practices and traditional environmental knowledge, alongside challenging explorations of how knowledge is filtered through ideologies and subjectivities, from the Western scientific worldview to individual memory. Chapters address case studies in several parts of the world, under the following sections: defining indigeneity; indigenous conservation, beliefs and practices; indigenous subjectivities, perception, myth, memory; and cultural collisions and competing knowledges. Download the book [pdf] …

 

This week in review … New Zealand’s Whanganui River granted legal personhood

New Zealand’s Whanganui River Gets Personhood Status
ENS, 13 September 2012

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand’s longest navigable river, the Whanganui, has been given “legal standing and an independent voice” under a framework agreement to settle the historical claims of indigenous people, the Whanganui Iwi. Although the agreement does not state specifically that the river will have the same rights under law as a corporation, a spokesman for the government minister who negotiated the settlement said the Whanganui will be recognized as a person when it comes to the law, “in the same way a company is, which will give it rights and interests.” “Today’s agreement, which recognizes the status of the river as Te Awa Tupua (an integrated, living whole) and the inextricable relationship of iwi with the river, is a major step towards the resolution of the historical grievances of Whanganui Iwi and is important nationally,” Minister Christopher Finlayson said. The agreement reached so far recognize the status of the river, appoint a river guardian, and provide for developing river values and a whole of river strategy. It does not conclude settlement negotiations. Matters of detail and additional redress are still to be negotiated between the parties.

The river is of special and spiritual importance for Māori, who call it Te Awa Tupua. In pre-European times, many Māori villages dotted the river banks. The Whanganui has been one of the most fiercely contested regions in claims before the Waitangi Tribunal for the return of tribal lands. The Whanganui River claim is the longest-running legal case in New Zealand history with petitions and court action since the 1930s. Read the article … Read a National Geographic article on the issue … Read a New Zealand Herald news item …

 

This week in review … Reviving age-old water harvesting techniques and TK to respond to India’s water shortages

Q&A: India must revive age-old water harvesting methods – expert
AlertNet, 23 July 2012

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Anupam Mishra is an Indian water expert widely acknowledged for promoting water conservation and management through ancient rainwater harvesting systems. In this interview, he talks about the establishment of intelligent water systems that respect nature’s laws, noting the techniques they promote have evolved over hundreds of years and are carefully tailored to local conditions. Read the interview …