Overview of the State of Indigenous Peoples in Asia

Two-thirds of the approximate 370 million self-identified indigenous peoples are in Asia, enriching the region’s enormous cultural and linguistic diversity. They have strong cultural attachment to and livelihood dependence on land, forests and waters, and the natural resources therein. They have unique collective historical connections with, and ownership of their territories that have continuously been developed and maintained through complex and diverse customary land and resource use management systems that are repositories of tangible and intangible wealth.

There are different names, that governments and others use to refer to indigenous peoples collectively – like “ethnic minorities”, “hill tribes”, “tribal people”, “highland people”, “aboriginal people”, “native people”. Some of these terms are not appreciated by many indigenous peoples, since they often imply notions of cultural inferiority, “primitiveness” or “backwardness”.

Attachments:

State_of_IP_Asia

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(New Publication) Comic Book: Rights in Action-Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples

Free, Prior and Informed Consent is a mechanism and a process wherein indigenous peoples undertake their collective decision on matters that affects them, as an exercise of their right to their land, territories and resources, their right to self-determination and to cultural integrity.

FPIC is an iterative process that should be undertaken in good faith to ensure mutual respect and meaningful participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making on matters affecting them. It requires the conduct of a series of consultations, dialogues, exchanges, and interactions between indigenous peoples and those requiring their consent and agreeement for the entire cycle of a project from planning, implementation and monitoring. Thus FPIC should ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in all project-related process that affect them.

Attachments:

Right

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Research on the Roles and Contributions of Indigenous Women in Sustainable Forest Management in Mekong Countries

International standards including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and recent climate change agreements recognize the important role of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge, systems and practices in the sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity conservation. Yet, indigenous women’s role and contribution to sustainable forest management is often overlooked, thus the need to document good practices of indigenous women as well as the challenges they face in their role as managers of forest natural resources.

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Burmese_Case_Study	[ ]	2887 kB
Khmer_Case_Study	[ ]	1694 kB
English_Version	[ ]	1704 kB
Vietnamese_Case_Study	[ ]	1076 kB

Briefing paper on REDD+, Rights and Indigenous Peoples: Lessons from REDD+ Initiative in Asia

The idea of including ‘reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries’ in the global climate change negotiations was first presented by the Coalition for Rainforest Nations in 2005, at the UNFCCC’s 11th Conference of the Parties in Montreal, Canada. Five years later, in 2010, REDD was part of the agreements reached at the 16th COP in Cancun Mexico. During these five years REDD has evolved considerably. While the original idea behind REDD was to pay forest owners for preventing deforestation and thus reduce carbon emissions, the Cancun Agreement broadened the scope of REDD to include both actions that prevent emissions and actions that increase removal of carbon from the atmosphere, i.e. conservation and sustainable management of forests – thus the term “REDD plus”.

Attachments:

Doha

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Read more: Briefing paper on REDD+, Rights and Indigenous Peoples: Lessons from REDD+ Initiative in Asia