In Kemerovo Oblast, West Siberia, the coal-mining industry is extracting “black gold” while destroying the environment and the rich traditional culture and natural resource management of the Shorts and the Teleut– two of Russia’s small numbered indigenous peoples. The development of resource-intensive industries in Kemerovo Oblast has high environmental costs, including the deterioratio...

Briefing note about the environmental consequences of mineral mining on the indigenous Evenkis, Nenets, Dolgans, Nganasans and Ents of the Russian Taimyr Peninsula. In the Taimyr Peninsula, the Norisk Nikel Company is extracting and processing precious minerals. It produces 35% of the world’s Palladium, 25% of its platinum, 20% of its nickel and 10% of its cobalt. The Taimyr Peninsula was...

This manual aims to build the capacities of the indigenous peoples, networks and organizations to advocate and work for the effective implementation of FPIC for indigenous peoples in the activities and projects relating to REDD+. In particular, the objective of this manual is to equip indigenous peoples with the knowledge and understanding of FPIC and REDD+; and to provide a general guide to co...

IWGIA's Annual Report 2011 gives examples of some of the activities implemented or supported by IWGIA during 2011 and major results. You can order a free copy through: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak2b268d06e01d8b99ae1d7570c9d2e297').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to...

Climate change has become an environmental problem affecting people throughout the world. Climate change is mainly the result of increasing global temperature, which results in shifting weather patterns such as unseasonal rains that affect agriculture, droughts, floods, plagues and diseases. Global warming is mainly the result of the increase of greenhouse gases, above all CO2, in the earth’s at...

IWGIA rapport 13: Droits et moyens de subsistance des peubles autchtones dans le Sud-Est du Cameroun Les peuples autochtones de chasseurs-cueilleurs des forêts tropicales humides d’Afrique Centrale possèdent un patrimoine coutumier solide et précieux, développé au fil des millénaires dans des cultures qui sont particulièrement adaptées à vivre en forêt et à l’exploiter de faç...

The indigenous hunter/gatherer peoples of the Central African rainforests have a strong and valuable customary heritage, developed over millennia in cultures that are uniquely adjusted to living in and utilizing the forest in a harmonious and sustainable way. Today, the cultures and very survival of the indigenous peoples of Central Africa are under severe threat, as a result of being pushed off t...

When discussing, planning and implementing sustainable development and environmental conservation project, a most important voice often tends to remain unheard: the voice of indigenous women. This despite the fact that indigenous women have valuable and specialized knowledge and experience with managing natural resources and protecting the environment that could play a key role in sustainable deve...

All over the world environmental conservation laws clash with the interests and rights of indigenous communities. In Asia, for example, millions of indigenous people are threatened with forced relocation due to the establishment of new or the strict enforcement of policies on existing protected areas. The case study presented in this paper shows how an indigenous community in Thailand has succ...

The aim of the guidelines is to offer conceptual and practical tools for improving natural resource management activities and to open a dialogue among practitioners as to how gender and indigenous concerns can best become an integrated part of any natural resource management process anywhere in the world. The First Part offers a number of case stories on the consequences of excluding and incl...

This newsletter is an outcome of a project implemented by SWEEDO in Kenya. The project focuses on Samburu womens rights in relation to traditional practises. Indigenous pastoralist women in northern Kenya, including the Samburu women, suffer from many human rights violations as both belonging to marginalized indigenous communities and as being women who are victims to various forms of harmful trad...

The military has played a decisive role in Bangladesh. Its influence over political, economic and social affairs is particularly pronounced in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), a region of natural abundance and home to 11 indigenous groups numbering approximately 700,000 people; this is a region, however, which has experienced decades of relentless human rights violations. Despite occupying on...

An estimated 260 million indigenous peoples live in Asia. Most of them inhabit forested uplands where a large number of them practice shifting cultivation, which is also called as swidden cultivation or rotational farming. For them, shifting cultivation is not merely a technique of farming; it is their way of life. Government policies and laws have attempted to limit or outright ban shifting culti...

Available as book and CD. In 61 country reports and 12 reports on international processes, The Indigenous World 2012 gives a comprehensive update on the current situation of indigenous peoples and their human rights, and reports on the most important developments in international processes of relevance to indigenous peoples during 2011. The majority of the country reports document how the es...

Vietnam is home to 53 ethnic minority groups who mostly live in the forested uplands. Numbering over twelve million people, they highly depend on forests for their livelihood and development. But the pressures on these forests are ever increasing, posing a serious threat to the lives and stability of millions of people. Since the early 1990s, Vietnam has attempted to address deforestation by ...

La Commission africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples a mis en place un Groupe de travail sur les populations/communautés autochtones (Groupe de travail) qui formule des recommandations et propose des mesures pour prévenir et remédier aux violations des droits de l’homme et libertés fondamentales des populations et communautés autochtones. Le Groupe de travail a effectué une vi...

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has established a Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities (Working Group) that formulates recommendations and proposals on appropriate measures to prevent and remedy violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and communities. The working group paid a research visit to the Republic of Kenya from...

Les Peuls sont principalement des pasteurs nomades et semi-nomades fermement attachés à leur système de valeurs traditionnel et qui migrent à travers l’Afrique de l’ouest avec leurs troupeaux depuis plus de 6,000 ans. Au Niger, ils sont victimes de plusieurs préjugés et stéréotypes négatifs. Ils sont souvent associés au banditisme et leur mode de vie traditionnel est perçu comme arc...

This briefing note aims to show how Indigenous Peoples’ exclusion from political decision-making processes - locally, nationally, regionally and globally - places them in a position of extreme disadvantage vis-à-vis imposed industrial activities that affect their individual and communal lives, territories and resources. This is particularly evident in the case of the extractive sector. At the e...

A manual for indigenous community trainers While the first guide in our manual series, "What is REDD?" aims to help indigenous communities to understand what REDD+ is and what its implications may be for them more generally, this manual looks at REDD+ on the project level. The purpose of this manual is to provide guidance to indigenous trainers to prepare and conduct trainings on Community-base...

The African Commission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities undertook a country visit to the Republic of Congo in March 2010. The aim of the visit was to encourage the government to adopt a law on indigenous peoples’ rights and to follow up on a visit conducted in September 2005. The report gives an account of meetings held with government authorities, civil society organiz...

Briefing paper informing about indigenous peoples in South East Asia, the impact of climate change and the possibilities and threats represented by REDD +. It considers the responses of the ASEAN regarding these global challenges and makes recommendation as to how ASEAN should promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples in relation to climate change and climate change. Contents: The...

Rapport du groupe de travail de la Commission Africaine sur les populations/communautés autochones en la Republique Democratique du Congo, 9-25 Août 2009.

This biligual (English/French) report describes the situation of the indigenous populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and makes recommendations to the government, civil society organizations, and the international community. The report is based on research and meetings with government authorities, civil society organizations and indigenous communities in Kinshasa, North Kivu, and Sou...

The Annual Report 2003A is a status report that describes the activities of IWGIA in 2003. You can order a copy through: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloakd661fce41f0defb691275b5f9801a7a3').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addyd66...

The Annual Report 2004 is a status report that describes the activities of IWGIA in 2004. You can order a copy through: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak7c4405dcc4369081e53ee2850542fb5f').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy7c44...

The Annual Report 2005 is a status report that describes the activities of IWGIA in 2005. You can order a copy through: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak1172f584defbfcf5d53d05b0db9c5b34').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy1172...