THE POSITION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF TROPICAL FORESTS Gerard A. Persoon Tessa Minter Barbara Slee Clara van der Hammen Tropenbos International Wageningen, the Netherlands 2004 Gerard A. Persoon, Tessa Minter, Barbara Slee and Clara van der Hammen The Position of Indigenous Peoples in the Management of Tropical Forests (Tropenbos Series 23) Cover: Baduy (West-Java) planting rice ISBN 90-5113-073-2 ISSN 1383-6811 © 2004 Tropenbos International The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Tropenbos International. No part of this publication, apart from bibliographic data and brief quotations in critical reviews, may be reproduced, re-recorded or published in any form including print photocopy, microfilm, and electromagnetic record without prior written permission. Photos: Gerard A. Persoon (cover and Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7), Carlos Rodríguez and Clara van der Hammen (Chapter 5) and Barbara Slee (Chapter 6) Layout: Blanca Méndez CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 1. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND NATURAL RESOURCE 3 MANAGEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL POLICY GUIDELINES 1.1 The International Labour Organization 3 1.1.1 Definitions 4 1.1.2 Indigenous peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 5 management 1.1.3 Resettlement 5 1.1.4 Free and prior informed consent 5 1.2 World Bank 6 1.2.1 Definitions 7 1.2.2 Indigenous Peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 7 management 1.2.3 Indigenous Peoples’ Development Plan and resettlement 8 1.3 UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 8 1.3.1 Definitions 8 1.3.2 Scope and approach 9 1.3.3 Indigenous support and advocacy 9 1.4 Convention on Biological Diversity 10 1.4.1 Indigenous Peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 10 management 1.4.2 Indigenous participation in the CBD process 11 1.5 The Netherlands Foreign Policy on Indigenous Peoples 11 1.5.1 Definitions 11 1.5.2 Scope and approach 11 1.5.3 Indigenous Peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 12 management 1.6 The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and World Wide Fund For 12 Nature (WWF) 1.6.1 Definitions 12 1.6.2 Scope and approach 12 1.6.3 Indigenous peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 13 management 1.7 European Union 13 1.7.1 Definitions 14 1.7.2 Scope and aims 14 1.7.3 Indigenous peoples’ position in relation to natural resource 14 management 1.8 Asian Development Bank 15 1.8.1 Focus and approach 15 1.8.2 Definitions 15 1.8.3 Initial social assessment, the Indigenous Peoples’ Plan and 16 resettlement References 19 2. COUNTRY STUDY: INDONESIA 21 2.1 Tribal groups in Indonesia 21 2.1.1 The concept of masyarakat terasing 21 2.1.2 Population figures and tribal diversity 22 2.1.3 Official policies: back to the cultural mainstream 23 2.1.4 Unplanned change 29 2.2 Reacting to international discourse 30 2.3 Indonesianization in between localization and globalization 36 2.4 Indonesia and international organizations 37 2.4.1 AMAN (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara) 38 2.5 Future prospects 40 References 42 3. COUNTRY STUDY: VIETNAM 45 3.1 Introduction 45 3.2 Ethnic minorities in Vietnamese society 46 3.2.1 The poorest of the poor 46 3.2.2 Kinh and the ethnic minorities 47 3.2.3 Upland development policies 47 3.2.4 Ethnic minority representation 48 3.3 Ethnic minorities and tropical rainforest management 49 3.3.1 Deforestation in Vietnam: causes and consequences 49 3.3.2 Forest management policies 53 3.4 In conclusion 58 References 60 4. COUNTRY STUDY: THE PHILIPPINES 61 4.1 Introduction 61 4.2 Indigenous peoples in Philippine society 61 4.2.1 Indigenous peoples under colonial rule 62 4.2.2 Indigenous peoples after independence 63 4.3 Indigenous peoples and tropical rainforest management 65 4.3.1 Deforestation in the Philippines 65 4.3.2 Changing visions on indigenous peoples and forest conservation 66 4.4 In conclusion 69 References 70 5. COUNTRY STUDY: COLOMBIA 71 5.1 Introduction 71 5.2 Indigenous resguardos in Colombia: towards autonomy and 75 political decentralization 5.2.1 Collective territorial rights 76 5.3 Resguardos towards administrative decentralization 76 5.4 Problems and challenges of the policy of resguardos 79 5.4.1 Land tenure: the overlap between resguardos and National 79 NaturalParks 5.4.2 Mining and the ownership of the subsoil 81 5.5 The recognition of the role of indigenous people in nature 83 conservation 5.5.1 Cultural and ecological principles of forest management: from a 84 traditional vision to the present day situation 5.5.2 Mechanisms of forest management for the present conditions 87 5.5.3 Participatory research as a contribution to forest management 88 5.5.4 Permanent observatory of the status of natural resources 89 5.5.5 Recuperation of traditional knowledge for the consolidation of 90 indigenous territories 5.5.6 Sustainable income generation as a part of a knowledge dialogue 91 5.6 Environmental transfers 94 5.6.1 Compensation and subsidies for indigenous management 94 References 95 6. COUNTRY STUDY: ECUADOR 97 6.1 Ecuador, the Amazon and its people 97 6.1.1 Ecuador and the Amazon 97 6.1.2 The Shuar 98 6.2 The impact of the international debate 100 6.2.1 The position and participation of indigenous peoples 101 6.2.2 The role of indigenous peoples in conservation and sustainable use 108 of biodiversity 6.2.3 The protection of indigenous knowledge 115 6.3 Theory and practice 123 References 125 7. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN AFRICA 127 7.1 Introduction 127 7.2 General situation 127 7.3 The Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous 130 People/Communities 7.4 The African Indigenous Movement 132 7.5 Two cases in Africa 133 7.5.1 Exploitation and the Bagyeli in Cameroon 133 7.5.2 Land alienation in the Hadzabe in Tanzania 136 7.6 Main characteristics 138 References 141 8. DECENTRALIZATION OF NATURAL RESOURCE 143 MANAGEMENT: SOME THEMES AND UNRESOLVED ISSUES 8.1 Introduction 143 8.2 Differences in time perspectives 144 8.3 The ecological basis of natural resources under co-management 146 arrangements 8.4 ‘Community’ and ‘management’ in ‘community-based 147 management’ 8.5 Dissolving state responsibilities and non-local interests 150 8.6 Contractual arrangements 151 8.7 Third parties in co-management arrangements 152 8.8 Terminology: ‘people’, ‘peoples’ or ‘communities’? 153 8.9 Self identification versus objective criteria with regard to being 154 indigenous 8.10 Principles of justice 155 8.11 The danger of ethnic cleansing 155 8.12 Free and prior informed consent 156 8.13 Failure and success in co-management: a comparative perspective 157 References 158 9. TOWARDS RESEARCH PRIORITIES 161 9.1 Introduction 161 9.2 Research priorities at the national and local levels 161 9.2.1 Research questions at the national level 161 9.2.2 Research questions at the local level 162 9.3 Background questions 167 9.3.1 International discourse on law, declarations, policy guidelines 167 and best practices 9.3.2 International support groups, networks and alliances 168 9.4 Research methodology 169 9.4.1 The need of participatory research 169 9.4.2 Operating in a delicate and sensitive political context 169 Introduction INTRODUCTION According to different estimates there are about 300 million indigenous people in the world with approximately 5,000 different cultures, which represent the larger part of the world’s cultural diversity. At present, the close relationship between cultural and biological diversity is widely discussed. Since the United Nations (UN) officially declared 1993 as the “International Year of the Indigenous Peoples”, which was followed by the announcement of the “International Decade of the Indigenous Peoples” (1994-2004), the international discourse on indigenous peoples has gained in relevance. The Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be discussed by the UN in the course of 2004. All major international donor agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as agencies for nature conservation such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have issued policy guidelines for dealing with indigenous peoples in the implementation of their activities. Many individual countries have also followed these practices, and most western countries have issued similar policy guidelines. Furthermore, at the level of the Convention of Biological Diversity and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the protection of indigenous knowledge and practices is officially recognized. This recognition of particular rights of indigenous peoples in the development process, and also in relation to nature conservation activities, is the core element within these policy guidelines and convention texts. At present, many of these agencies are already in the second or third phase of policy revisions based on practical experiences with the implementation of these guidelines. Another important aspect is the increased level of organization of the indigenous peoples themselves and cooperation between the indigenous organizations. Furthermore, the representatives of the indigenous peoples have become more vocal. Although a number of individual countries have issued national legislation in line with international development in this field, other countries are more hesitant to do so. Simply because of the fact that they do not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples within their national boundaries. They prefer to use terminology like ‘upland tribes’, ethnic minorities, ‘people’ instead of ‘peoples’ and so on. We shall deal with the issue of definition in the following chapters.