“It is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed.” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 146
Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN), as a collaborating organization in the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA), advocates for the rights of the Maasai in Arusha Region, Tanzania to stay in their ancestral lands. Since 2022, the Tanzanian government has been planning to evict the Maasai
from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) and Loliondo through misinformation propaganda, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of livestock, cutting of social services, and hindering humanitarian support. These repressive practices, which has become a regional issue in Africa, are geared toward the establishment of gaming-controlled areas and conservation parks to promote tourism through foreign investments under the name of biodiversity ‘conservation’. The principle behind this practice is reflective of the ‘fortress’ conservation method that has been introduced during the colonial times that segregated natural wildlife from human inhabitants. As a response to this issue, AEFJN supports CIDSE’s policy brief Protecting the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to halt Biodiversity Loss. This policy brief thus provides a summary to inform about the situation, analyze the challenges involved, and the recommendations for religious congregations engaged in this advocacy.
See: Expanding Global Biodiversity Protection through Finance and Indigenous Knowledge
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in 2022 states that 30 percent of all land and water shall be protracted by 2030. Wealthy nations are tasked to contribute $20 billion per year for biodiversity in developing countries, especially in Africa, by 2025 and additional $30 billion per year by 2030. The European Union finances biodiversity conservation and sustainable land use with a budget of around 10% of the EU’s Multi-Financial Framework for 2021-2027, which is set to increase by 2030 through several EU-funded projects.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognizes the significance of indigenous and local communities’ knowledge and practices in protecting and restoring biodiversity.
However, biodiversity financing of fortress conservation practices by governments leads to human rights violations of indigenous peoples and local communities, thus trampling their cultural wisdom while uprooting them from their inhabited environment.
Particular examples of this dire situation are the Batwa people in Democratic Republic of Congo and the Maasai in Tanzania.
Judge: Challenges in Biodiversity Financing
- During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, countries pledged US $1.7 billion to promote the role of indigenous peoples in protecting the forests. However, a 2023 study states that only 7% of the funding during 2021-2022 went to indigenous peoples and communities.
- New market-based approaches to conservation lead to privatization of nature. Pastoralists, like the Maasai, are vulnerable to marginalization due to territorial enclosures that prevent their mobility and acquire grazing land to sustain their livestock.
- Indigenous leadership and local communities do not take the leading role in shaping climate or conservation funding programs. Funding sources lack flexibility to meet community needs or imminent threats, making it hard for them to access, especially in the case of women who are excluded from land and forest governance.
- International proliferation of biodiversity offsetting, crediting, and related trading schemes have been intended to bridge the funding gap for biodiversity protection, but are modeled after ineffective carbon markets and build on an outdated, top-down fortress conservation model
Act: The Way Forward – Recommendations for Further Action
- Traditional Knowledge
End the fortress and market-based conservation approaches by instead promoting conservation based on human rights, co-management and traditional conservation methods. Indigenous peoples and local communities must be treated as central actors and responsible guardians to protect biodiversity.
- Right to Land
= Ensure the right to land is respected and protected, as recognized in international human rights law for both indigenous peoples and local communities.
= Ensure Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples and their leadership in all decisions impacting their land, life and livelihoods.
= Ensure the free, active and meaningful participation of pastoralists, peasants, fisher people and local communities and their representative organizations in all decisions impacting their land, life and livelihoods.
= Respect communities’ Right to Say No to any evictions and prevent all forms of displacement in the name of biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, and mitigation or tourism.
= End all ongoing support to EU-funded biodiversity projects that are detrimental to the human rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
- Biodiversity Finance
= Use EU biodiversity finance to prioritize direct funding support for agroecology. Mainstream biodiversity protection should be implemented across the agricultural sector.
= Simplify access to existing biodiversity finance for indigenous peoples and local communities. Indigenous peoples and local communities should be the main recipients and directly benefit from biodiversity funding. Biodiversity finance must be shaped by local priorities, managed and fully controlled by Indigenous leadership and local community organizations.
= Put in place robust monitoring and accountability mechanisms.
= Stop the promotion, development and use of biodiversity offsetting and crediting schemes.
- Root Causes
= Prioritize addressing the primary drivers of biodiversity loss, e.g., by reducing excessive extraction of natural resources, reliance on industrial agriculture, over consumption within European economies, and the ongoing supply and use of fossil fuels.
For more information: Carsten Bockemühl (Misereor), Priscilla Claeys (Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience Coventry University), Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), and Karin Ulmer, Protecting the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to halt Biodiversity Loss (September 2024).
