Until today, the topic of shifting cultivation is highly controversial, judged as a threat to landscapes. Nevertheless it remains important to indigenous peoples for securing their livelihoods and food sources.
At the 2014 Global Landscapes Forum, the civil society organization Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) will take a closer look at this topic by hosting a session on “How indigenous peoples use landscapes approaches to conserve forests: Good practices and challenges for food security and livelihoods”. The session will cover recent findings on the sustainability of indigenous land use, the role of women in shifting cultivation and experiences from REDD+ in Asia.
As far as livelihoods and food security are concerned, advocacy on land tenure is important. To have defined rights over the land people grow their food on is crucial. AIPP is committed to promoting and defending indigenous peoples’ rights. Their programs aim to increase the advocacy capacities of indigenous organizations and indigenous human rights defenders.
Ahead of the Global Landscapes Forum, Rahayu Soegiono spoke to Lakpa Nuri Sherpa from AIPP about their advocacy work.
Q: Indigenous peoples are facing a lot of problems, is advocacy really what will help them?
A: It is important that indigenous peoples have their say in decision-making processes concerning climate change, since they are the ones disproportionally affected by it. Also their lifestyles can be good examples for resilience against climate change and can provide solutions. Still they are neither accounted for nor fully recognized. This is where the advocacy for their rights comes in and can make a difference.
For example take the low carbon lifestyle of indigenous peoples. Studies conducted in the Hua Hin Lad Nai village in Thailand showed that the average Thai citizen has a much higher consumption than the villagers. The ecological footprint of an average Thai is three to four times that of the Hun Hin Lad Nai community.
Protecting the rights and livelihoods of indigenous peoples is saving the environment and enhancing biodiversity. Ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples in climate change solutions is also ensuring sustainable resource management and development.
Q: What do you do about these issues?
A: Effective advocacy work for indigenous peoples includes constant engagement with policy makers, donors and funders at local, regional and global levels as well as collaboration with other stakeholders like civil society organizations, social movements, research and academic institutions, and media. It’s also important to make advocacy a part of knowledge and capacity building and community mobilizations of indigenous peoples.
Q: How should advocacy look like to really reach every stakeholder group and to promote change?
A: Advocacy work should first have a clear message for every stakeholder. We need to identify issues that have to be changed and actions that can be taken both in the short and in the long run. Respect, promotion and protection of indigenous rights are important for us; as is good governance, environmental protection and sustainable development. They build the core, which all advocacy work should be centered around.
Q: You say that indigenous communities have climate resilient lifestyles. Why is it still necessary to foster food security and climate-friendly cultivation among them?
A: Of course, indigenous people know their land and what to do with it, but the problem is the land tenure. To successfully produce enough food for your family and community you need the knowledge, the resources and the rights for the land you grow your food on. For indigenous communities rights to their land are the basis for their food security. They already have the knowledge of managing natural resources in a sustainable way. This knowledge just has to be protected and complemented with sources of livelihood – if we want to make them able to achieve food security.
Q: Can you give us an example from the field?
A: There is a case about the Huay Hin Lad Nai – community in Northern Thailand. The villagers joined forces with neighboring communities and joined the National Assembly of the Poor to strengthen the movement against the Chiang Rai Tham Mai logging company to fight against the communities’ possible eviction from the national park. They consistently pushed for the recognition of their land tenure, for their distinct identity and for sustainable agroforestry practices. In the end, indigenous Karen villagers succeeded in getting back their land and halting the operations of the logging company. They managed to protect their sustainable resource management and ways of life.
Nowadays they pass on their knowledge to the younger generations, and received national and international recognition. Preecha Siri of the Huay Hin Lad Nai community also was honored with the Forest Hero Award of the UN Forum on Forests in 2013 for his leadership role in natural resource management and forest conservation.
Q: What are your hopes and expectations for the Global Landscapes Forum 2014?
Our expectation is that the Global Landscapes Forum will create a greater understanding of the landscapes approach and rights-based approaches among all stakeholders. We also hope it will foster collaboration among those stakeholders. And that it will create synergies.
