The Permanent Forum decides to appoint a member to participate in any future meetings of the Working Group on access and benefit-sharing and the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention.
Indigenous peoples should be free to continue and enhance the participation of their institutions in various processes locally, nationally, regionally and globally in forms and ways that are culturally appropriate for them and that ensure equality and non-discriminatory access. In that regard, the Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and indigenous peoples involved in international regional cooperation forums exercise an inclusive and non-discriminatory approach towards indigenous peoples living in the countries and territories covered by such forums.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recognition and inclusion of indigenous peoples’ knowledge in the work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to assess the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The Forum supports the Platform’s approach to recognize and work with indigenous knowledge throughout its work programme, for example, recognizing the contribution of indigenous knowledge in its global assessment on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems. The Forum invites the Platform to continue to inform the Forum about the progress of its work, including at its seventeenth session.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change consider the possible establishment of an ad hoc open-ended intersessional working group on indigenous peoples and local communities and climate change, whose objectives would be to study and propose timely, effective and adequate solutions to respond to the urgent situations caused by climate change that indigenous peoples and local communities face. The Forum furthermore recommends that the Convention consider providing necessary funding support to Forum members and indigenous peoples to guarantee their participation and to strengthen their participation.
The Forum welcomes the preparation of daily press releases in English, French and Spanish on the discussions of the Forum during its session. The Forum requests the Department of Public Information, in collaboration with the secretariat of the Forum, to:
a) Ensure the widest distribution of the press releases;
b) Develop an overall strategy to fulfil the mandate of the Forum to disseminate information on indigenous peoples and their issues.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the concerns expressed by the African Indigenous Peoples Caucus on the announcement by the World Bank in February 2014 of its intention to map Africa’s mineral resources by using satellites and airborne mineral surveys. The Forum calls upon the World Bank, African Governments, investor Governments and the private sector to disclose information about the “billion-dollar map” project, prior to any intervention and in a transparent manner, and requests that commitments to international norms and standards in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples be recognized and respected. The Forum also recommends that the World Bank involve indigenous peoples’ representatives in the mapping process and that indigenous peoples’ free, prior and informed consent be respected, consistent with articles 19 and 41 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum urges States to recognize indigenous peoples’ customary laws on genetic resources and traditional knowledge and to consider the development of sui generis systems based on such customary laws, as appropriate, for the protection of traditional knowledge and access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
The Forum recommends that in order to raise further awareness of indigenous peoples and the Millennium Development Goals, the Economic and Social Council High-level Segment to be held from 29 June to 1 July 2005, and the General Assembly Summit to be held in September 2005 allow presentations of recommendations of the Forum at its fourth session on the Millennium Development Goals by the Chairperson of the Forum
The practice of preparing overview reports, the Message Stick (the quarterly newsletter) and the database on the implementation of recommendations should be maintained. The secretariat should review oral interventions delivered during sessions of the Permanent Forum and take note of references made to the implementation of recommendations, which should be added to information provided in written submissions.
The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Mr. Carsten Smith and Mr. Michael Dodson, members of the Permanent Forum, as special rapporteurs to undertake a study about indigenous fishing rights in the seas.
The Permanent Forum expresses its thanks to the Governments of Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Canada, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Finland, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, the Russian Federation, Spain and the United States of America, as well as the government of Greenland, for having hosted previous pre-sessional and intersessional meetings of the Permanent Forum. The Permanent Forum stresses the importance of organizing such pre-sessional and intersessional meetings and reiterates its recommendation that States that have not yet done so consider hosting such meetings in the future. It also requests that the secretariat of the Permanent Forum organize pre-sessional meetings for future sessions of the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations organizations provide technical assistance and convene, in cooperation with indigenous peoples’ organizations, regional workshops on the special theme of the sixth session of the Permanent Forum, namely, “Territories, lands and natural resources”, with the participation of Permanent Forum members, and other experts, indigenous peoples’ representatives, indigenous parliamentarians, State representatives, and representatives of the United Nations system, in order to formulate recommendations for consideration, as part of its preparatory work for the sixth session. The Permanent Forum further recommends that States, organizations and donors provide resources for these regional workshops.