The Forum recommends that all United Nations environmental bodies, in particular the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNEP, GEF, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, make the necessary efforts to mobilize resources for projects by indigenous peoples, and provide financial support to strengthen the international indigenous peoples Forum on biodiversity and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The Permanent Forum urges States to review their policies on biofuel industries, which, in the name of remedying the impacts of climate change, are resulting in the deforestation of large forest areas and the displacement of indigenous peoples. That increases the vulnerability of indigenous communities and in particular of those living in voluntary isolation.
The Permanent Forum also calls on the United Nations to ensure the active participation of indigenous peoples at the High-level Plenary Meeting of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly, to be held in September 2010.
The Permanent Forum urges the Human Rights Council expert mechanism on indigenous peoples to evaluate whether existing and proposed climate change policies and projects adhere to the standards set by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These bodies, together with the members of the Inter-Agency Support Group for Indigenous Issues, should collaborate with States, multilateral bodies, donors and indigenous peoples to effectively ensure that the implementation of the Declaration is central to the design and implementation of climate change policies and programmes.
The Permanent Forum is concerned about reports of UNDP entering into a strategic partnership with the oil company GeoPark, a private entity that has been accused by indigenous communities of disregarding their rights, to carry out economic development activities in Colombia without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous communities that will be affected. This partnership contradicts standard 6 (indigenous peoples) of the UNDP social and environmental standards, and the Forum urges UNDP to suspend all related partnership activities until a proper free, prior and informed consent process can be carried out.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies convene a high-level meeting with representatives of indigenous women to review the commitments and actions for securing the human rights of indigenous women highlighted in articles 21, 22 and 41 of the Declaration.
The principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equity, social justice and sustainable development and development with identity should remain the key principles underpinning the negotiations, policies and programmes on climate change. The human rights-based approach to development and the ecosystem approach should guide the design and implementation of local, national, regional and global climate policies and projects. The crucial role of indigenous women and indigenous youth in developing mitigation and adaptation measures should also be ensured.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the approval of the approach to recognizing and working with indigenous and local knowledge adopted at the fifth plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, in 2017, and the establishment of a participatory mechanism for indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the Platform. The Forum urges the identification of procedures and methodologies for effective implementation of the approach and the participatory mechanism, in partnership with indigenous peoples.
The Forum recommends the designation of focal points in the United Nations country teams or the country offices of United Nations agencies, funds and programs, with a mandate to deal with indigenous issues, inter alia, to follow-up on the implementation of recommendations of the Forum, and the objectives of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
The Forum recognizes the unique contributions made by indigenous women in terms of possessing and transmitting through the generations a wealth of traditional knowledge on the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable environmental management, and calls on the secretariat of the Convention for Biological Diversity, UNEP and all relevant United Nations bodies to mainstream indigenous gender issues and knowledge in national environmental policies and programmes.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the need to establish a dialogue with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the reflection of indigenous issues in policies related to official development assistance (ODA).
The Forum recommends that the national commissions of UNESCO work closely with indigenous experts and representatives with expertise in education, science, culture and communication to increase the participation of indigenous peoples in the activities of UNESCO.