Kenyan Civil Society Meeting on ICCAs

Natural Justice's Gino Cocchiaro attended a meeting of Kenyan civil society representatives investigating the promotion of Indigenous peoples' and community conserved territories and  areas (ICCAs)  on 7 November, 2012, in Nairobi, Kenya. During the meeting, which was facilitated by the GEF Small Grants Programme and UNDP, Natural Justice presented on the recently completed Kenyan ICCA legal review, developed by Natural Justice and its partners, and on biocultural community protocols, a legal tool being used by communities in Kenya to secure their ICCAs. Through its BCP Initiative, Natural Justice continues to work closely with Kenyan partners and lawyers to assist communities in the development and use of their BCPs and as they attempt to shape and leverage national law and policy that respect their territories and waters.

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RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change

The twelfth Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change was held at the Newseum in Washington, DC, on 5 November 2012, to consider the theme “Scaling-Up Strategies to Reduce Emissions and Advance Development in Forest Areas.” The event was organized by RRI in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy.

João Paulo Miranda and Jessica Campese (Natural Justice) attended the Dialogue, which included important discussions on addressing the obstacles of achieving sustainable use of forests. Participants included representatives from community and non-governmental organisations, governments, donors, and extractive industries, among others. The concept note and agenda, key presentations, and videos are available on the Dialogue webpage. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services provided digital coverage and a summary report.

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Major New Partnership - National Khoi-San Council and Natural Justice

NKC Chairperson Cecil Le Fleur
signing the MoU

Natural Justice has established a ground-breaking relationship with South Africa’s National Khoi-San Council (NKC), the government-convened body of representatives from Khoe and San communities of South Africa. Natural Justice’s Lesle Jansen, Laureen Manuel and Johan Lorenzen presented Natural Justice’s proposed partnership with the NKC, which the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) has agreed to support, to the Council from 6-7 November, 2012, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. A memorandum of understanding committing both parties to the completion of the proposed activities was signed between Natural Justice and NKC on November 7, 2012.  

Natural Justice will support NKC to achieve three objectives through the partnership:

• Support the Council in having meaningful consultations amongst Council communities, members and with government;

• Engage in legal training for the NKC around the National Traditional Affairs Bill and its continued negotiations;

• Consult with Khoe and San communities to draft a self-governance model based on the human rights issues set out in the UN Mission report recommendations of 2005. 

The initial partnership is for 12 months but it is hoped that this will be the foundation of an enduring relationship. 

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International Conference on Heart of Borneo Initiative

The proposed Heart of Borneo boundary

(in yellow). Courtesy of WWF-Malaysia.

The island of Borneo is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, with thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. It is politically divided into the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, the Indonesian provinces of West, Central, South, and East Kalimantan, and the state of Brunei Darussalam. In 2007, the three national governments signed the Heart of Borneo Declaration, a unified conservation vision for "maintaining Bornean natural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations". The Heart of Borneo initiative, which is facilitated by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia), aims to protect 22 million hectares of the largest contiguous forest in Southeast Asia through effective management of forest resources and a network of protected areas, productive forests, and other sustainable land uses.

From 6-7 November, Holly Shrumm (Natural Justice) attended an international conference entitled "Heart of Borneo +5 and Beyond: Shaping and Nurturing Sabah's Future Together". Held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, the conference was organised by the Sabah Forestry Department and co-hosted by a range of other government agencies and non-governmental organisations, including the Sabah Biodiversity Centre, Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah (PACOS Trust) and Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP).

The first session on global perspectives on conservation included a diverse group of presenters, most notably, on renewable energy (Dr. Daniel Kammen, Energy and Resources Group, University of California-Berkeley), on the connections between people and forests (Dr. Tint Lwin Thaung, Executive Director, The Centre for People and Forests), and on the drivers of deforestation (Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com).

The second session introduced a new and complementary initiative called "Forever Sabah", which aims to transform Sabah's current trajectory into a diversified, conservation-based green economy. The multi-stakeholder panel was moderated by Darrel Webber (Secretary General, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and included interventions from Sam Mannan (Director, Sabah Forestry Department), Cynthia Ong (LEAP), Anne Lasimbang (PACOS Trust), Dr. Glen Reynolds (the Royal Society's South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme), Jeffrey Horowitz (Avoided Deforestation Partners), and Abdullah Latiff Mohamad (WWF-Malaysia).

The bulk of the rest of the conference consisted of breakout sessions (which included presentations and  open discussions about next steps for Heart of Borneo) on the following five themes: forests and biodiversity; agriculture and plantations; infrastructure and energy development; community development; and tourism. When the groups presented their outcomes in plenary, a common thread throughout - bolstered by strong representation of Indigenous community members from across Sabah - was the need to recognise Native Customary Rights and land title and to ensure participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Heart of Borneo design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation process.

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Critical REDD Documentary from The Mending News

The Mending News, a news source that seeks to 'mend' current issues, has released a scathing critique of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) entitled "Exposing REDD: The False Climate Solution.” The documentary seeks to highlight the risk that REDD will not reduce deforestation and will merely enable more pollution while decreasing the land tenure security of communities in the 'global south', especially Indigenous communities. 

The documentary includes an interview with Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Mr Goldtooth argues in the film that the issue with carbon trading is that "(b)efore you can trade anything, and treat anything as a commodity, you have to determine who owns that. So who owns the carbon, the air, whether it’s in the trees, in the soil, in the plants, in the air? Whose property right is that? As Indigenous Peoples you know we, many of us embrace the cosmo-vision, the spirituality, the sacred relationship that we hold dear to who we are, especially our relationship to the sacredness of Mother Earth."

The film can be accessed here. A transcript of the film can be found here. Natural Justice is currently exploring with a range of partners how to ensure the REDD-related funds and mechanisms can support Indigenous peoples' and local communities' ongoing efforts to protect and conserve their forests according to their own terms, plans and priorities. Natural Justice's e-module for communities potentially affected by REDD can be accessed here. 

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Palm Oil Producer Violations Exposed

A series of major Asian palm oil companies that are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have been exposed for violations of RSPO guidelines. As a recent press release from the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) demonstrates in documenting several of these cases, these violations raise the question of whether the RSPO is actually able to enforce its own standards. 

It was recently established by Green Advocates, representing the Kru tribes in Liberia, that a subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer, Sina Mas, had clearly violated the RSPO’s New Planting Procedure by not advertising plans to clear and plant oil palms and not publicising a High Conservation Value Assessment. According to RSPO standards, the company should cease clearance until due process is followed, especially as community members have expressed concern that their land is being taken without their free, prior and informed consent. 

The FPP press release documents further violations of RSPO guidelines in Liberia, Cameroon, Malaysia, and Indonesia, many uncovered through a partnership between FPP, Sawit Watch and other partners to review the practices of 15 major palm oil companies in West Africa and Southeast Asia. It concludes by noting Sawit Watch’s concern that the RSPO must significantly improve its system as its credibility is clearly at stake. 

Find the full press release here. Download FPP and Sawit Watch’s review of 15 RSPO members practices here.

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Palm Oil and Bioenergy Strategies in SE Asia - Regional Seminar

Via SEI

As the cultivation and processing of palm oil and other biofuel foodstocks continues to expand in Southeast Asia, increasing its economic significance with support from international finance institutions, regional development banks, and governments, the region is witnessing unprecedented land use changes and changes in the exploitation of natural resources and local livelihoods. In this context, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is hosting a regional seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, from 15-16 November 2012 on “Palm oil and bioenergy strategies in South East Asia: Review of field lessons and debate on ways ahead.” 

The seminar will seek to support the coordination of existing governmental policies, regulations and regional strategies for palm oil and bioenergy through the provision of lessons learnt and new research data from case studies on land use change and water resource management in palm oil plantations and feedstock processing. It aims to contribute to an evidence-based dialogue on the rigour of the existing strategies, and to consider how further implementation can be enhanced to promote sustainable production. The seminar will include presentations of national and regional bioenergy and palm oil strategies, lessons from case studies in Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia, and a panel debate, involving participation from governments, regional development banks, companies and NGOs. 

The seminar will draw from the lessons the SEI has learned from its experience in the field, including case studies on community grievances and water governance in the oil palm sector in central Kalimantan, Indonesia (download here) and on how the European Union can revise its policies to support ‘sustainable’ palm oil cultivation (download here). SEI recently hosted at seminar on “Promoting Biofuels, Creating Scarcity?” in Brussels (learn more here).

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