The Permanent Forum welcomes the invitation extended by the Russian Federation to hold a United Nations expert group meeting devoted to environmental and indigenous peoples’ issues in Khabarovsk, Russian Federation, in August 2007, and invites other States to follow its good example.
Taking into account decision 22/16 of the Governing Council of UNEP, the Forum recommends that UNEP and relevant United Nations agencies and programmes hold consultations at the regional and national levels with indigenous peoples to examine this issue and prepare recommendations on possible further strengthening of the understanding of the link between environment and cultural diversity.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its concern over environmental violence, in particular the pervasive impacts of such violence on indigenous women and girls. The Forum takes note with appreciation of the recommendations from the third International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environment and Reproductive Health, held at Columbia University in New York on 14 and 15 April 2018. The Forum recommends that members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and the relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council consider ways to address and incorporate the recommendations from that Symposium.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to analyse the compatibility of domestic laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular with a view to harmonizing laws dealing with Arctic renewable resources upon which indigenous peoples depend, and to include the indigenous peoples of the Arctic in a direct and meaningful way in this analysis.
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.