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Indigenous Groups Denounce Exclusion from Biodiversity Talks |
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By Mario Osava*
Indigenous groups had no voice in the negotiations in Curitiba, Brazil, about a binding global policy for the use of genetic resources. But they are already preparing to make sure they are heard in 2008.
CURITIBA, Brazil - Indigenous leaders are speaking out about their exclusion from the talks about a binding regime for regulating access to genetic resources, during the international biodiversity conference that ended Mar. 31 in this southern Brazilian city.
"We have to be partners at the same level as the government when resources based on traditional knowledge are being exploited," Marcos Terena, coordinator of the indigenous groups present at the 8th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8), told Tierramérica.
The adoption of a binding international policy, one that establishes rules for access to genetic resources and for the sharing of benefits arising from their use, was the most contentious issue during the 11-day discussions at COP8, which drew some 3,600 delegates from 173 countries.
Developing countries that are rich in biodiversity are pushing for the genetic resources regime, among them Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, but the proposal faces opposition from several industrialized nations, and most observers agree that it would be years before such a policy could materialize.
The International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), created a decade ago and representing more than a hundred indigenous groups around the world, protested their exclusion from the debate about the regime, which they say would directly affect the lives of peoples who for millennia have inhabited the lands where genetically valuable plants and animals are found.
Just over 200 indigenous activists, 180 with ties to the IIFB, were present at the COP8.
"We want participation in the negotiations of the regime at the same level we have in Articles 8j and 10c of the Convention on Biological Diversity," said Terena, who is also leader of the Brazilian Inter-Tribal Committee and his country's representative at the IIFB.
Articles 8j and 10c deal with the preservation of "knowledge, innovation and practices of indigenous and local communities" and the "customary use of biological resources" -- the implementation of both includes indigenous voices.
But many governments reject the tribal aspirations to take part in the talks on a binding international policy, arguing that the Convention recognizes the sovereignty of states over their natural resources.
The demand of the indigenous peoples is based on the premise that they "should have autonomy in managing their lands and use of their natural resources," said Terena.
"First of all, we need mechanisms for the protection of indigenous knowledge and practices," he said, concerned by the databases and other initiatives that make such information available to the market.
But he acknowledged that when it comes to distributing the benefits arising from biodiversity, indigenous communities have yet to clarify what they want. Those from Brazil, for example, were absent from previous COPs. They studied the Convention before participating in COP8, and, according to Terena, it won't be until the next conference, in two years, that they will be effective in influencing the proceedings.
For some, treating traditional and scientific knowledge as equivalents would suggest dividing potential royalties in equal parts. Others are talking about 25 percent.
The indigenous aspirations also run into other complicated challenges. The obstacles begin with identifying the indigenous communities themselves. In most Asian countries they are not officially recognized, but rather referred to vaguely as "ethnic minorities", noted Terena. In other countries it is argued that the entire population is native.
Governments do not recognize them throughout Africa, says Lucy Mulenkei, head of the Indigenous Information Network in Kenya. In Cameroon, for example, the Constitution mentions them, but indigenous people's rights are not acknowledged in practice.
There are indigenous groups in all of the African countries and they are peoples who maintain their ancestral cultures and traditions, surviving on their lands while being harshly discriminated against by their governments, Mulenkei told Tierramérica.
An emblematic case is that of her own tribe, the Maasai, with around a half-million people who maintain their identity despite discrimination and the pressures that have reduced their territory. Her people are "self identified" and do not depend on external certification, she said.
Says Terena: Spirituality, culture -- including language -- and territory, in that order, are the elements of indigenous identity.
"We want to be recognized as 'peoples' and not simply communities," stressed Florina López, a Kuna woman from Panama who, along with Mulenkei, coordinates the Indigenous Women's Biodiversity Network.
López admitted that it is unlikely that governments will cede a part of control in this arena, except for including the indigenous groups in the talks about the binding policy for access to genetic resources.
The distribution of benefits from those resources will occur "perhaps in the next century," she said with a note of irony, stressing that the IIFB was not accepted as an advisory body to the Convention on Biological Diversity until 2002, during COP5.
"That's not enough, but it is a path" towards true participation in the negotiations, López said.
Ramón Tomedes, a Ye'kwana from Venezuela, shared the cautious attitude, and called for "not ceding indigenous knowledge until the peoples in the grassroots are clear" about what they are negotiating.
But he rejected the criticisms that seeking benefits from biodiversity means privatizing the natural heritage of humanity. The potential royalties from genetic resources would be distributed collectively, as they already are amongst his peoples, benefiting 52 communities, he said.
"We guard our traditional knowledge, but without shutting it away, because it can benefit our people and the world, and we don't want to isolate ourselves," Tomedes told Tierramérica.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent.
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