The Permanent Forum welcomes the policy guides that are being developed by UN-Habitat, including on housing for indigenous peoples in the urban setting, which will be presented at the upcoming session of the World Urban Forum, to be held from 3 to 7 November 2008, in Nanjing, China. States are encouraged to support the production of the guidelines.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments and States promote the creation of conditions for indigenous peoples that will enable them to maintain the forests in their traditional way and conserve their cultural identity, with priority accorded to indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, strengthening their capacities and highlighting the value of ancestral knowledge related to native forests. The Forum further recommends that the traditional knowledge and traditional forest management practices and governance systems of indigenous peoples for the protection and use of their forests be recognized in all forest policies and climate-related forest initiatives.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNDP further engage indigenous peoples in the discussion regarding the concept of human development and in the elaboration of its Human Development Reports. The UNDP concept of human development and its work to promote such a paradigm should be more strongly founded on human rights principles and therefore on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. With regard to indigenous peoples, this means recognizing the principles of self-determination, independent development and other peoples’ rights. Thus, national, regional and global UNDP Human Development Reports should reflect indigenous peoples’ views of development from the perspective and with the participation of indigenous peoples themselves.