Heads of state from around the world met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June to address the critical issues of sustainability and development as part of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20. Thousands of indigenous leaders, some traveling for two weeks just to get to the conference from their communities, also converged to put forward their visions and strategies. “By the time the official conference started, it was painfully clear that the idea of sustainable development being promoted by governments was very different than that being promoted by indigenous peoples,” said Armstrong Wiggins, director of the Center’s Washington, D.C. office and Rio+20 participant.
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development began 20 years ago with the Rio Earth Summit. That meeting launched new processes and mechanisms for environmental protection, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Though the environmental problems facing the world have only become more urgent in the two decades since the first Rio conference, the Rio+20 process failed to produce concrete results. Instead, the final declaration agreed upon by states is more of a political document that does not establish any commitments for the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories, environments and natural resources.
The Center’s staff traveled to Rio to meet with indigenous leaders from across the Americas, to learn from their experiences with development projects – from energy and infrastructure projects, to climate conservation programs – and to learn their strategies for sustainable development. “What we heard was from Argentina to Canada, indigenous communities are fighting to protect their lands and environments from a development model that seems to prioritize growth at any cost. At the same time, the contribution that indigenous peoples make to sustainability – the protection of the natural resources and ecological systems found within indigenous lands – is rarely recognized,” said Wiggins.
Guyana’s new climate strategy is an example. “Under the current Low Carbon Development Strategy program, our government has planned to build a hydrodam, which will provide electricity to the city alone and not to the indigenous peoples,” explained Laura George, with the Amerindian Peoples Association. “The lands that would be flooded are the traditional lands of our peoples.” George said that the position of the indigenous peoples remains the same as those who fought against the same dam proposal generations before – “our rights to lands must be respected; we will not be flooded.”
Indigenous leaders from Ecuador said their government’s forest conservation program, Socio Bosque, a REDD program (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), may give the government greater access to petroleum and other resources owned by indigenous peoples.
“[REDD] is a business that the government is trying to establish within indigenous territories and with this money it is trying to control our lands and institutions and to be able to negotiate oil and other strategic natural resources found within our territories,” says Mario Santi of the Sarayaku people. “For this reason, many of the peoples in Ecuador, like in other continents, have said no to REDD.”
Indigenous leaders went to Rio to help world leaders understand that they are key to sustainable development. “Our knowledge, our technologies, our education, our way of life, our customs, our harmonious lifestyle and ancestral practices – that is sustainable development,” said Santi.
In a presentation with the Center, Miguel Palacín, then General Coordinator of the Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas (CAOI), described Buen Vivir, a proposal for a development paradigm shift based in the cosmovision of Andean peoples.
“We use Mother Earth, but without destroying her,” says Palacín. “[Buen Vivir] is living together with a recognition of human rights, continual consultation, practicing solidarity and reciprocity, and without commercializing nature.”
While little was agreed to in Rio+20, a clear lesson that emerged was that just labeling something sustainable doesn’t make it so.
As George explains, sustainability programs, including REDD climate programs, or green economy policies, must have strong standards on indigenous rights. “Unless the rights of indigenous peoples – the rights to their lands, territories and resources – are recognized and respected as binding commitments, it will just be lip service by governments and nations.”
To help indigenous communities dealing with development proposals that impact their lands and resources, the Center has produced a new guide entitled, “Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development: Protecting our Rights.” The booklet is designed to help communities understand what rights they have with regard to development projects so that they can influence project proposals to ensure that their people and environment are protected.