Securing forests, securing rights: report of the international workshop on deforestation and the rights of forest peoples
In 2012 the world lost more than 20 million hectares of forest, adding to the threats faced by hundreds of millions of tropical-forest-dependent people, including at least 350 million indigenous people, who inhabit, use, have customary rights to, and rely on forests for their identity and survival as distinct peoples. In response to the ongoing and intensifying forest crisis, more than 60 representatives of indigenous and other forest communities from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and supportive environmental, human rights and social non-governmental organisations, came together at the International Workshop on Deforestation and the Rights of Forest Peoples, in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, in March 2014, to share experiences and seek solutions to the unrelenting destruction of forests around the world and the risks to forest peoples’ rights, well-being, forest territories and cultural heritage. 'Securing Forests, Securing Rights' covers the extent of the crisis, the alarming consequences for forest communities, workshop delegates’ critiques of top-down international anti-deforestation initiatives, and forest peoples’ advocacy of approaches and solutions based on securing their customary land rights and other human rights and placing forest communities centre-stage in efforts to curb deforestation.