Designating Forests as Protected Areas is Evicting Indigenous People

From the Congo Basin to Kenya, India and Paraguay, the designation of forest land as "protected areas" has brought homelessness, hunger and persecution to indigenous peoples who have lived there for centuries, rights experts say, pointing the finger at governments and the conservation groups they work with.

In many cases, international conventions and national laws oblige states to respect legal and customary ownership of land by indigenous tribes, consult them on how that land is used, and involve them in efforts to conserve the natural resources it contains.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, tells the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii that there remains a huge gap between the rules on paper and reality on the ground.

http://news.trust.org/item/20160902144104-lroav

Lucas Campoi

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