Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPCL)

Topic- Environment and Ecology [GS Paper-3]

Context- Recently, at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a group representing indigenous people stressed that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) should work on respecting, promoting and supporting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPCL).

Key Highlights 

• Members of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) have stressed upon the rights of indigenous people.

Key Areas Stressed by Indigenous People

• The rights of the indigenous peoples and local communities, who have always been the most effective guardians of biodiversity, also need to be recognised and protected.
• The framework needs to follow a “human rights-based approach, by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights, and particularly indigenous and collective rights, and gender equity” by actively seeking ways to support and promote indigenous communities and their rights.
• The implementation of the post-2020 GBF should include traditional knowledge, practices and technologies while respecting the principles of free, prior and informed consent.

Role of Indigenous People in Biodiversity Conservation

• Conservation of Natural Flora:

• • The magico-religious belief of tribal communities, plant as a god and goddess habitat leads to their conservation in their natural habitat.
  • Further, a wide range of plants such as crop plants, wild fruits, seeds, bulb, roots and tubers are conserved by the ethnic and indigenous people as they have to depend on these sources for edible purposes.
• Application of Traditional Knowledge:
  • Indigenous people and biodiversity complement each other in every atmosphere.
  • Over time, the rural communities have gathered indigenous knowledge for the cultivation of the medicinal plants and their propagation.
  • These plants conserved work as antidotes to snake bites and scorpion bites or even for broken bones or orthopaedic treatments.
• Conserving the Sacred Groves:
  • India’s ethnic people have played a significant role in preserving the biodiversity of several virgin forests and have conserved flora and fauna in sacred groves of tribals. Otherwise, these flora and fauna might have disappeared from the natural ecosystem.

Difficulties Faced by Indigenous People

Disruption After Designation of the Status of World Heritage Site:

• The approach adopted to isolate the indigenous people from their natural habitats in order to protect biodiversity is the root cause of conflict between them and conservationists.
• With the announcement of natural habitat as a World Heritage Site, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) takes charge of the region’s conservation.
• It leads to an infusion of many outside people and technological equipment, which in turn disrupt the lives of the Indigenous people.

 Implementation of the Forest Rights Act:

• Most of the states in India have a dismal record in implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
• FRA’s constitutionality has been challenged in the Supreme Court several times by different conservation organisations.

Development vs Conservation:

• Often, the combined stretch of land claimed by Indigenous people has been taken away for various purposes such as building dams, mining, laying railway lines and roads, power plants, etc.
• Moreover, forcibly removing tribal people from their land will only result in environmental damage and violate human rights.

Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

• The post-2020 global biodiversity framework builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
• As the UN Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020 comes to an end, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) actively supports the development of what needs to be an ambitious new global biodiversity framework.
• The new frameworks have four goals to achieve by 2050 i.e.
  • To halt the extinction and decline of biodiversity.
  • To enhance and retain nature’s services to humans by conserving.
  • To ensure fair and equitable benefits to all from use of genetic resources
  • To close the gap between available financial and other means of implementation and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision.
• The framework also has 21 action-oriented targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030, that includes,
  • To bring at least 30% of land and sea under the world’s protected areas.
  • A 50% higher reduction in the rate of introduction of invasive alien species, and controls or eradication of such species to eliminate or reduce their impacts.
  • Reduction of nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds, and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste.
• Nature-based contributions to global climate change mitigation efforts of at least 10 GtCO2e (gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide) per year, and that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid adverse impacts on biodiversity.

International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity

• The IIFB is a collection of representatives from indigenous governments, indigenous non- governmental organizations and indigenous scholars and activists that organize around the CBD and other important international environmental meetings.
• Its objective is to help coordinate indigenous strategies at the meetings, provide advice to the government parties, and influence the interpretation of government obligations to recognize and respect indigenous rights to the knowledge and resources.
• The forum was formed during the III Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP III) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 1996.

Approach Moving Forward

• Recognition of the Rights of the Indigenous People:

• • • For preservation of the rich biodiversity of the region, the recognition of the rights of the forest dwellers who depend on the forests is as important as the declaration of natural habitat as a World Heritage Site.

• Effective Implementation of the FRA:

• • • The government should make an effort to build trust between its agencies in the area and the people who depend on these forests by treating them as equal citizens like everyone else in the country.

• Traditional Knowledge of the Tribal People for Conservation:

• • • The Biodiversity Act, 2002 states the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use and knowledge of biological resources with the local communities.
    • Hence, all the stakeholders should realise that indigenous people’s traditional knowledge is a way forward for more effective conservation of biodiversity.

• Tribals as the Forest Scientists:

• • Tribal peoples are often regarded as the best conservationists, as they connect with nature more spiritually.
  • The cheapest and quickest way to conserve areas of high biodiversity is to respect the rights of the tribes.

Download as PDF