Statement by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity

Working Group 1
Agenda Item 4.7: Protected Areas
COP9, Bonn, Germany
23 de mayo del 2008

Madam Chairperson,
Indigenous peoples have been conserving biodiversity as part of their daily lives long before protected areas came into being. We are therefore very concerned about the rapid expansion of protected areas while not recognizing the contribution of our customary use and governance systems in indigenous territories to the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. We re-iterate our earlier statement made in the plenary on the first day of this COP opposing the establishment of any new national protected areas in indigenous lands and territories until the rights to our lands, territories and resources are fully recognized and respected.
We urge Parties to recognize customary laws as an important element in governance and management of our territories, thus, if any references is made to national laws and international obligations in relation to protected areas, it must also refer to customary laws.

We ask Parties to give priority to the implementation of Programme Element 2 of the Programme of Work related to Governance, Participation, Equity and Benefit Sharing. We urge Parties to address the issue of restitution of our lands and territories taken for protected areas without our Free, Prior and Informed Consent so that indigenous peoples can re-establish control over our lands and territories.

On options to mobilizing financial resources for the implementation of Programme of Work on protected areas, indigenous peoples continue to express frustrations that our recommendations were not considered at the 2nd meeting of the Working Group on Protected Areas last February in Rome. It is unacceptable to establish protected areas in our territories and now propose new financial mechanisms that would further affect our lives. We therefore request to take on board the IIFB’s recommendations made in WGPA2, which among others include studying the impacts of the variety of existing and proposed funding mechanisms on indigenous peoples and local communities.

Any initiative towards the implementation of Programme of Work such as the Lifeweb Initiative should use the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a basis and should focus on the implementation of Programme Element 2. In particular, the Free, Prior and Informed Consent and involvement of indigenous peoples in the planning, decision-making and implementation of such initiatives must be guaranteed.

We appreciate the efforts made by a number of Parties and civil society to engage indigenous peoples in dialogues regarding the implementation of the Programme of Work.

We will submit the IIFB's preferred text for the bracketed draft decisions found in document UNEP/CBD/COP/9/8 to the Secretariat.


Thank you, Madam Chair.