IPRB: Context & Dynamics

Excerpt from "The Position of Indigenous Peoples in the Management of Tropical Forests". NB: Report notes that findings and opinions are those of the authors of and do not necessarily reflect the position of Tropenbos International, Wageningen, the Netherlands (2004): "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..."