Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations Experiences in Collaboration Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations Experiences in Collaboration

Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations Experiences in Collaboration Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations Experiences in Collaboration Ron Weber, John Butler, and Patty Larson, Editors February 2000 Support for this publication was provided by the Biodiversity Support Program, the Ford Foundation, and World Wildlife Fund. The Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) is a consortium of World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and World Resources Institute, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This publication was made possible through support provided to BSP by the Global Bureau of USAID, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement Number DHR-5554-A-00-8044-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID. Typography and layout by Williams Production Group CONTENTS Acknowledgments iv Preface v Part One: Introduction Chapter 1 Conservation and Indigenous Peoples 3 Chapter 2 Conservation Partnerships with Indigenous Peoples 7 Part Two: Case Studies Chapter 3 Indigenous Federations and the Market: The Runa of Napo, Ecuador Dominique Irvine 21 Chapter 4 Lessons in Collaboration: The Xavante/WWF Wildlife Management Project in Central Brazil Laura R. Graham 47 Chapter 5 Holding On to the Land: The Long Journey of the Sirionó Indians of Eastern Lowland Bolivia Wendy R. Townsend 73 Chapter 6 WWF’s Partnership with the Foi of Lake Kutubu, Papua New Guinea Joe Regis 91 Chapter 7 Environmental Governance: Lessons from the Ju/’hoan Bushmen in Northeastern Namibia Barbara Wyckoff-Baird 113 Part Three: Conclusions Chapter 8 Signposts for the Road Ahead 139 Contributors 147 Annex. Indigenous Peoples and Conservation: WWF Statement of Principles 149 iv Acknowledgments The editors would like to thank the case study authors, whose work forms the core of this book, for their dedication to carefully documenting project experiences so that others can learn from them. Thanks also go to participants in WWF’s 1998 workshop on collaboration with indigenous peoples for sharing their firsthand knowledge to help identify approaches to effective collaboration. This book would not have come to fruition without the long-term commitment, advice, and contributions of Janis Alcorn, Bronwen Golder, Gonzalo Oviedo, Femy Pinto, Kirsten Silvius, Stephanie Thullen, Margaret Williams, Diane Wood, and Sejal Worah. Special appreciation goes to Barbara Wyckoff-Baird, who coordinated the development of the case studies and played a lead role in designing the 1998 workshop. Last, but not least, we thank the initiative’s funders—the Ford Foundation; Peoples, Forests and Reefs, a USAID-funded program of the Biodiversity Support Program; and World Wildlife Fund—for seeing the importance of sharing lessons and guidelines for improving collaborative efforts between conservation organizations and indigenous peoples. v Preface Each day, more and more of the world’s species are losing their toeholds on the future. As cities and agricultural lands spread, wildlife habitats are increasingly enveloped and erased by the expanding rings of modern human activity. At the margins of these circles of change, in the last remaining remnants of tropical forests, grasslands, and pristine coasts, live isolated peoples with traditional ties to their lands and waters. Indigenous people inhabit over 85 percent of the world’s protected areas. New proposed protected areas almost invariably include areas claimed as indigenous territories. In some countries, more biodiversity is found in indigenous reserves than in nature preserves. And so it is that, at the end of the twentieth century, conservationists are urgently seeking ways to collaborate with indigenous peoples to preserve biodiversity and expand wildlife habitats for the future. Conservationists have found that such collaboration is not always easy—either locally at the level of communities or regionally at the level of federations. Collaboration remains a work in progress. Indigenous groups are suspicious that conservationists intend to alienate their lands from them. While traditional resource management and value systems generally support conservation objectives, indigenous communities often lack people with expertise for monitoring biodiversity levels and planning land use that is compatible with habitat maintenance. They sometimes lack the organizational capacity to interact with outsiders or to manage project funds. They face multiple problems that accompany mod- ernization. They usually have very little political weight at the national level and are sometimes viewed as troublemakers by national governments. At the international level, however, indigenous peoples are increasingly asserting their right to be recognized as conservation partners, and conservation NGOs increasingly find indigenous interests represented in stakeholder groups. There is a critical need to strengthen the ability and rights of indigenous peoples to manage biodiversity and find productive avenues for working with conservation NGOs. Donors increasingly recognize this and are responding by providing technical assistance to indigenous resource managers, strengthening the capacity of indigenous groups to communicate effectively with outside NGOs and government agencies, and supporting appropriate policy reforms. Yet insufficient attention has been paid to sharing the lessons NGOs have learned from their efforts to collaborate with indigenous peoples. World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) project experiences can provide lessons for all conservation groups, and foster a broader understanding of the implications of applying WWF’s 1996 statement of principles for working with indigenous peoples. While the case studies in this volume review efforts designed with more limited objectives than the new ecoregional initiatives WWF is moving toward, the lessons about collaboration with indigenous communities remain valid. And while the meaning of indigenous differs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the degree of self-identification as indigenous peoples varies within regions, the general lessons and insights from WWF field experiences can be applied globally in all types of conservation initiatives involving marginalized ethnic minorities. I hope that the lessons from this first-ever review of WWF’s engagement with indigenous communities will be widely read, and integrated into the operational guidelines of conservation organizations and agencies around the world. Janis B. Alcorn Director, Peoples, Forests & Reefs Program Biodiversity Support Program, Washington, D.C. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 Conservation and Indigenous Peoples In The Diversity of Life, biologist Edward O. richest and most varied habitats on the planet. Wilson notes that five cataclysmic “spasms of They are also the most culturally diverse regions, extinction” from meteorite collisions, climatic home to as many as half the world’s more than changes, and other natural events have swept like 4,000 indigenous peoples. scythes through the biosphere during the past 600 This is significant because, until recently, most million years. He postulates that a sixth great of these peoples lived in relative harmony with cycle of extinction is now under way, this one their environments, using and managing their caused entirely by humans. Perhaps one-fifth of resource bases sustainably. The environmental the world’s biodiversity will vanish by the year alterations made by indigenous groups, such as 2020 if current trends persist. the Bentian Dayak rattan farmers of Less well known is another cycle of extinctions Kalimantaan, were so subtle, in fact, that out- that parallels the one presently sweeping through siders have mistakenly presumed vast stretches the biosphere. Traditional societies, with their of the Earth to be wildernesses barren of human rich cultural heritage and historical link to nature, populations. The movement to establish are vanishing at a rate unmatched in recorded national parks and reserves that began at the history, and as many as half of those that remain turn of the twentieth century was intended to are expected to disappear in the first 100 years of keep at least a representative portion of these the new millennium. areas pristine, removed from human predation It only takes a glance at a map to show why con- as the pace of technology and economic devel- servationists should be concerned—biodiversity opment accelerated. By the last quarter of the and cultural diversity are highly correlated. If century it became clear in much of the world one uses language as an indicator of cultural that this idea had serious flaws. Conser- diversity, then six of the nine countries that vationists who persuaded the state to establish account for 60 percent of all human languages protected areas found many of these victories to are also areas of biological “megadiversity” be hollow. Government agencies often lacked teeming with plant and animal species so numer- either the political will or the manpower, skills, ous a multitude remains uncounted. In terms of and funding to defend park boundaries from biomass, tropical rain forests are known to be the outside encroachment. 4 Conservation and Indigenous Peoples By the 1980s, some conservation organizations influencing national and international environ- began to develop new strategies designed to turn mental and sustainable development policies. local communities into allies of park conserva- At the same time, these communities stand at a

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