Indigenous Peoples and Conservation

Abstract

Forest-dwelling peoples' organizations continue to express concern about destruction of their forests. The International Alliance of the Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests issued The Forest Peoples Charter in February 1992 (available from the World Rainforest Movement in the U.K and Cultural Survival in the U.S.A.). The Charter sets out a conservation policy based on recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to conserve their forests and to regulate development activities currently imposed upon them without their consent. It is the first such statement from a global network of forestdwelling peoples' organizations. At the local level, forest-dwellers around the world have repeatedly made declarations deploring outsiders' destruction of forests for at least 500 years. The Forest Peoples Charter adds its weight to other international forest-dwellers' declarations, including the 1988 statement of the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) highlighted in the essay by Redford and Stearman (1993). Many conservation groups are now supporting forest peoples' struggles for recognition of their rights. The Global Biodiversity Strategy (World Resources Institute et al. 1992) supports recognition of ancestral domains. Redford and Stearman also conclude that it is wise for conservationists to work with indigenous peoples. But like Clad (1984), they argue that the interests and agendas of the two groups are partially or completely in conflict. Conservation is a social and political process. Conservationists interested in achieving on-the-ground conservation of biodiversity have to choose among real options, not idealized academic options. Conservationists in an increasing number of countries are choosing the option of working with local peoples' organizations. Redford and Stearman are correct in stating that compromises are being made, but decisions about goals and compromises deserve further thought.