Governments should support training in sustainable consumption towards a sustainable lifestyle and follow up initiatives, including networks and smalls grants
The Permanent Forum reiterates to the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and especially to the parties to the Nagoya Protocol, the importance of respecting and protecting indigenous peoples’ rights to genetic resources consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Consistent with the objective of “fair and equitable” benefit sharing in the Convention and Protocol, all rights based on customary use must be safeguarded and not only “established” rights. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has concluded that such kinds of distinctions would be discriminatory.
Throughout history, indigenous peoples have moved from place to place to find water, pastureland for their animals, and game; to trade goods from different ecological zones; and even to seek job opportunities in urban areas. Mobility restrictions both within and across State borders have affected indigenous peoples adversely, with the impact on pastoralist groups particularly severe in the context of their ability to access water and food. The Permanent Forum recommends that States implement specific measures to address the mobility needs of indigenous peoples, including through cooperation with neighbouring States, and that such efforts be made with the full free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected.
The Permanent Forum urges States and bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, including the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Environment Assembly, to include indigenous peoples in a fully meaningful and effective manner in decision-making processes in all areas aimed at tackling marine litter and plastic pollution, and landscape/ecosystem degradation, including in programmes and partnerships and in the future negotiations of international instruments. Such efforts should include recognition of the traditional knowledge, practices and innovations of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, in plans and actions to restore landscapes and ecosystems and to address marine litter and plastic pollution.
The global engagement of indigenous peoples at the international level has led to some positive institutional developments, including the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples can play an important role in the fight against climate change. Member States and United Nations entities should ensure that any activities related to the use of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples respect indigenous peoples’ own protocols and consent agreements for managing access to their traditional knowledge. Strengthening and ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples at all levels is also critical for the design and implementation of climate policies, plans, programmes and projects at the local, national and global levels.
The Permanent Forum urges States to increase the provision of funding to indigenous peoples and communities for water and wastewater systems in order to improve the quality of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as address water pollution and degradation in indigenous communities.
However, elements of the Tkarihwaié:ri code of ethical conduct are voluntary. The Permanent Forum is concerned that paragraph one of the code is restrictive as it includes the following: “They should not be construed as altering or interpreting the obligations of Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity or any other international instrument. They should not be interpreted as altering domestic laws, treaties, agreements or other constructive arrangements that may already exist.”
The Forum calls on the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to continue its support to the national indigenous peoples biodiversity participatory mechanisms of the small island developing States through the Convention's island and biodiversity project and indigenous peoples program, in the promotion of sustainable biodiversity
Affirmation of the status of indigenous peoples as “peoples” is important in fully respecting and protecting their human rights. Consistent with its 2010 report (E/2010/43-E/C.19/2010/15), the Permanent Forum calls upon the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and especially including the Nagoya Protocol, to adopt the terminology “indigenous peoples and local communities” as an accurate reflection of the distinct identities developed by those entities since the adoption of the Convention almost 20 years ago
The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO develop an action plan to identify priorities with indigenous peoples to support their participation in the 2022 International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Conservation, environmental and other non-governmental organizations ensure that their forest-related programmes and policies use the human rights-based and ecosystem approach to forest conservation. This includes the integration of the implementation of the Declaration in their forest programmes.
The Forum recommends that FAO and the Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Initiative work further on the development of cultural indicators for identifying priorities and criteria and methodologies for the right to food and food security, with the participation of indigenous peoples, taking into account the protection and restoration of indigenous peoples' traditional food systems and their agrobiodiversity and associated traditional knowledge and livelihoods. The threats to sustaining such systems, such as monoculture cash crop production, mineral extraction, environmental contamination and genetically modified seeds and technology, should be addressed.