The Permanent Forum encourages Member States, in cooperation with United Nations agencies, to develop social policies that will enhance the production of indigenous peoples’ traditional foods and promote the restoration or recovery of lost drought-resistant indigenous food varieties to ensure food security. In this context, the Forum recommends that Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger, as well as United Nations agencies such as FAO, IFAD and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, establish a committee, in full consultation with and with the participation of indigenous peoples, aimed at preventing food crises in the sub Saharan region where indigenous peoples reside. The committee’s objective should be to prevent humanitarian disasters and, in particular, to prevent starvation at the same level as the disaster that struck the region in 1973.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to recognize indigenous peoples, where they exist, consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Declaration, in their legislation in order to gather statistical data thereon, especially in the area of allocation of land and other natural resources for traditional use.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that legal obligations and commitments and indigenous peoples’ treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States are routinely denied and violated by States. With regard to interventions by indigenous peoples on unresolved land rights, including the Six Nations of the Grand River and others on which the Forum has made specific recommendations in the past, the Forum calls upon States to fairly and equitably redress the long-standing unresolved land rights issues through good-faith negotiations, consistent with the United Nations Declaration and without extinguishing indigenous peoples’ land rights.
The Forum encourages the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to recognize the importance of and emphasize support for indigenous agricultural systems, including forestry, shifting cultivation, fisheries, livestock, pastoralism and hunting-gathering systems, and their associated biodiversity, foods, knowledge systems and cultures. It encourages FAO to promote the responsible use of culturally appropriate agricultural inputs and technology so as to protect the traditional livelihoods of indigenous peoples
Reiterating the recommendation made at its seventh session, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration focus on the vulnerability of indigenous peoples in the Pacific region, in particular in view of the effects of climate change (see E/2008/43-E/C.19/2008/13, chap. 1, sect. B, para. 59).
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.
With a view to establishing a partnership with the United Nations Forum on Forests to work in the area of traditional forest-related knowledge and social and cultural aspects of forests pertaining to indigenous peoples, the Forum appoints Pavel Sulyandziga, member of the Forum, as Special Rapporteur to work with the United Nations Forum on Forests, without financial implications, and to report on that subject to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at its fifth session
Governments should support training in sustainable consumption towards a sustainable lifestyle and follow up initiatives, including networks and smalls grants
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
The Permanent Forum appoints Valmaine Toki to conduct a study on the relationship between indigenous peoples and the Pacific Ocean, taking into account issues of governance, the effects of climate change, deep sea mining, resources and sustainable development.
The Permanent Forum, bearing in mind the importance of the right of indigenous peoples to food sovereignty and security, invites Member States to consider the possibility of announcing an international year of camelids with the aim of drawing attention to the management of lands, territories and resources and for the breeding of camelids.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges IFAD for the implementation of its policy on indigenous peoples and for selecting “Indigenous peoples’ food systems and sustainable livelihoods” as the theme of the second global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD. The Forum expects that IFAD will continue to strengthen its engagement with indigenous peoples in its future work by ensuring engagement at the country level through targeted programmes, capacity-building for indigenous peoples and project staff and the development of specific indicators on the well-being of indigenous peoples.