Resource: Report on indigenous peoples and climate change in Africa

Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in Africa: Report on Case Studies of Namibia’s Topnaar and Hai||om Communities
Ute Dieckmann, Willem Odendaal, Jacquie Tarr and Arja Schreij
Land, Environment and Development Project, Legal Assistance Centre, March 2013 | ISBN 978-99945-61-49-0

This report examines the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples in Africa and their strategies for adapting to climate change, including the local and traditional knowledge that informs such strategies. It addresses indigenous peoples of the sub-region, including their history, culture and ethnicity, institutions and social organization, livelihoods and traditional knowledge; climatic hazards and impacts; the governance-related context in Namibia, including recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights and traditional authorities, national climate change policies, and access to land and natural resources; and two case-studies on Namibia’s Topnaar and Hai||om communities, with emphasis on impacts of climate change, and traditional knowledge and adaptation. On the basis of lessons learnt, the report also offers a series of recommendations for both communities. Download the report [pdf] … Read an AllAfrica article on the report …

 

This week in review … Indigenous groups in the Amazon report climate change impacts

Indigenous tribes say effects of climate change already felt in Amazon rainforest
Mongabay.com, 30 April 2013

CALIFORNIA, USA: Tribal groups in the Amazon rainforest are already being affected by shifts wrought by climate change, reports a paper published last week in the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The paper, which is based on a collection of interviews conducted with indigenous leaders in the Brazilian Amazon, says that native populations are reporting shifts in precipitation patterns, humidity, river levels, temperature, and fire and agricultural cycles. These shifts, measured against celestial timing used by indigenous groups, are affecting traditional ways of life that date back thousands of years. “Indigenous groups who have lived in the Amazon for centuries, even millennia, are seeing signs that the climate is changing there,” said Steve Schwartzman, lead author of the study and director of tropical forest policy at Environmental Defense Fund. “Indigenous people are telling us rainfall and river levels have changed; the fires they’re dealing with are different now; and the climate systems they used to depend on for growing crops have become unpredictable.” In particular, indigenous interviewees mention concerns about drier conditions making it more difficult to control fires traditionally used for small-scale rotational agriculture. For generations, indigenous farmers set fires based on the position of stars in the sky – reflecting the time of year – with the expectation that the fires wouldn’t spread into humid forest areas. But drier conditions today mean that savanna fires can easily move into rainforests, damaging them and reducing their capacity to withstand drought and future burning. Read the article … Read the abstract of The natural and social history of the indigenous lands and protected areas corridor of the Xingu River basin, by Stephan Schwartzman et al …

 

Resource: IIED report on FPIC and extractive industries

FPIC and the extractive industries: a guide to applying the spirit of free, prior and informed consent in industrial projects
Abbi Buxton and Emma Wilson
IIED, March 2013 | ISBN 978-1-84369-909-5

This report seeks to articulate the relevance of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to company policy and practice, while also providing a balanced consideration of the relative responsibilities of government and civil society. Oil, gas and mining companies are increasingly aware of the need to secure the trust of local communities to gain a ‘social license to operate’. Implementing a project without it can lead to operational delays, financial costs and litigation, or even project closure, violence and loss of life. FPIC is an indigenous peoples’ right, established in international conventions, requiring companies to engage with local communities to agree together on how projects are implemented; it is also a crucial part of gaining the social license to operate. There is a growing set of FPIC regulations to comply with, and responsible companies are increasingly aware that they need to have policies relating to FPIC. This paper offers guidance to those companies who are looking to engage with FPIC in a meaningful way. It focuses less on the letter of the law, which may differ in different jurisdictions, and more on exploring ‘the spirit of FPIC’, a deeper commitment to engage with local communities to reach shared agreement, allowing people to have a meaningful voice in deliberative decision-making processes related to their own development. The authors offer a three-level framework of transferable principles to implement the ‘spirit of FPIC’, as well as references to the plentiful step-by-step guidance that exists on implementing FPIC. The framework is intended to challenge companies to move beyond a culture driven by minimal compliance-based thinking, towards one based on a greater understanding of the importance of stakeholder engagement practices; an understanding which should benefit business as well as communities. It involves: complying with requirements for FPIC under international and national law, company policy and obligations to third parties, such as project lenders; implementing the ‘spirit of FPIC’ throughout the project life-cycle, by employing timely, transparent, deliberative processes to reach mutual agreement on future developments, whether or not this is required by third parties; and applying the ‘spirit of FPIC’ not only to indigenous communities, but to all significantly affected local communities, in line with emerging good practice guidance. Download the report [pdf] …

 

Resource: UNU-IAS TK and climate science toolkit

Traditional Knowledge and Climate Science Toolkit
Williams, C; Galloway McLean, K; Raygorodetsky, G; Ramos-Castillo, A; and Barrett, B
United Nations University, 2013 | ISBN: 978-92-808-4544-0

Indigenous communities have long, multi-generational histories of interaction with the environment that include coping with variability, uncertainty and change. However, climate-induced impacts on their territories and communities are anticipated to be both early and severe due to their location in vulnerable habitats, including small islands, high altitude zones, desert margins and the circumpolar Arctic. Climate change poses a direct threat to many indigenous societies due to their continuing reliance upon resource-based livelihoods. At the same time, resilience in the face of a changing environment is embedded in indigenous knowledge and know-how, diversified resources and livelihoods, social institutions and networks, and cultural values and attitudes. Attentiveness to environmental variability, shifts and trends is an integral part of their ways of life. Community-based and local knowledge may offer valuable insights on climate-induced changes, and complement broader-scale scientific research with local precision and nuance. Indigenous societies have elaborated coping strategies to deal with unstable environments, and in some cases, are already actively adapting to early climate change impacts. While the transformations due to climate change are expected to be unprecedented, indigenous knowledge and coping strategies provide a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation measures.

This toolkit provides access to articles, videos and various other resources that will assist indigenous peoples, local communities, policy makers and other stakeholders in accessing research on climate change adaptation and mitigation. It is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. Download the toolkit [pdf] …

 

Resource: UNU-IAS policy report on indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes

Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes (SEPLs)
Nadia Bergamini, Robert Blasiak, Pablo Eyzaguirre, Kaoru Ichikawa, Dunja Mijatovic, Fumiko Nakao and Suneetha M. Subramanian
UNU-IAS Policy Report 2013 no. 10 | ISBN: 978-92-808-4547-1 (pb)

This policy report provides an in-depth look at the importance of developing a holistic set of indicators for policy-makers and communities to better understand the resilience of socio-ecological production landscapes, which have been created over time through close interactions between humans and their surroundings. When wisely managed, SEPLs have the potential to sustain rich levels of biodiversity while enhancing human well-being. The report also shares first experiences and lessons learned from application of the indicators in Cuba’s Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve. Download the report [pdf] …

 

Resource: IIED report on collective trademarks and biocultural heritage in the Potato Park, Peru

Collective trademarks and biocultural heritage: towards new indications of distinction for indigenous peoples in the Potato Park, Peru
Alejandro Argumedo
IIED, March 2013 | ISBN 978-1-84369-907-1

This paper presents the experience of the Potato Park communities in Cusco, Peru, in applying for formal protection through a collective trademark, and also in adopting an informal trademark for their products and services. The process of registering the collective trademark brought to light the incompatibility of the registration requirements with Peruvian law on indigenous governance, and the application was unsuccessful. The Potato Park communities have instead opted to use their trademark informally, and it is now widely recognised as a distinctive symbol of the Park. A survey found that as well as raising prices and increasing sales, the mark has helped to ensure social cohesion. However, while the trademark is informal, it lacks protection. Furthermore, experience shows that existing intellectual property tools tend to be unsuitable for protecting communities’ collective intellectual property, and even “soft” intellectual property tools such as collective trademarks and geographical indications can be beyond the legal and financial capacity of remote rural communities. The report concludes with a proposal for an alternative indigenous “biocultural heritage indication” which could draw on geographical indications, design rights and unfair competition law. Such a tool could open up the current IPR system to rural communities, alleviating poverty while protecting traditional knowledge, and strengthening biological and cultural diversity. Download the report [pdf] …

 

Resource: WIPO briefs on IP and traditional handicrafts, traditional medical knowledge

Intellectual Property and Traditional Handicrafts
WIPO Background Brief no. 5, April 2013

This brief identifies practical, accessible and often community-based means of using the existing intellectual property system for the effective recognition, protection, management, marketing and commercialization of traditional handicrafts as cultural and economic assets. Download the brief [pdf] …

Intellectual Property and Traditional Medical Knowledge
WIPO Background Brief no. 6, April 2013

This brief focuses on IP protection of traditional medical knowledge; it does not deal with the associated genetic resources, which cannot be directly protected by intellectual property but are subject to access and benefit-sharing regulations. The brief presents legislative and practical options for protecting traditional medical knowledge through conventional IP rights, sui generis systems and documentation, as well as other options including customary laws and practices, and contractual agreements.  Download the brief [pdf] …

 

This week in review … Article on rural heritage in Europe

Rural Heritage as a Driving Force for Sustainable Development and Terirtorial Cohesion
Maguelonne Dejeant-Pons, MEPIELAN Centre e-bulletin, April 2013

STRASBOURG, FRANCE : In this article, Maguelonne Dejeant-Pons, Head of Division on Policy Development in the Council of Europe, provides an overview of the Pan-European Charter for the rural heritage: promoting sustainable spatial development: ‘Rural heritage as a factor of territorial cohesion’, adopted by the ministers responsible for spatial/regional planning of the member states of the Council of Europe. The Charter seeks to make rural heritage a real asset to its territory, a factor and a driving force for sustainable spatial development, and to play a decisive part in making rural areas more attractive and in the town-country balance. She notes that “Planners now assign a wider definition to heritage, which is considered to include all the tangible or intangible elements that demonstrate the particular relationship that a human community has established with a territory over time.” Read the article …