Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
A musical protest at the Rio carnival will stress the damaging impacts of factory farming on indigenous people and on global warming. Concern about the environmental impact of industrialised farming through the use of pesticides and the destruction of the rainforest has even spread to Brazil’s famous Rio carnival. One …
Amid the realities of major political turbulence, there was growing recognition in 2016 that the land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to ensuring peace and prosperity, economic development, sound investment, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Despite equivocation by governments, a critical mass of influential investors …
In a milestone ruling, RSPO has said that a Wilmar-owned company violated the land rights of the indigenous Kapa community in West Sumatra. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has ruled that a unit of Singapore-listed palm oil giant Wilmar had violated indigenous community rights in Indonesia’s West Sumatra …
This manual brings together two fields that, until recently, have been separate: human rights and IWRM. These two fields have been brought together as awareness has grown within the human rights community that water management is fundamental to the realization of a range of human rights. Similarly, water-management practitioners have …
The Adani Mining Pty Ltd is confident of commencing construction of the Carmichael mine by mid-2017, which will be Australia's largest coal mine, despite growing concerns and protests from environmental and indigenous groups that it will jeopardise the Great Barrier Reef and Aboriginal heritage. There were protests in Melbourne and …
A major factor for the population decline of Native Americans after European contact has been attributed to infectious disease susceptibility. To investigate whether a pre-existing genetic component contributed to this phenomenon, here we analyse 50 exomes of a continuous population from the Northwest Coast of North America, dating from before …
A new report by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reveals the crucial role the world’s drylands play in buffering the negative impacts of climate change, land degradation and drought. Drylands are absolutely key to global food security for the whole planet. Environment friendly and water efficient agriculture …
A new report quantifies the carbon stored aboveground in tropical forests that are legally owned or traditionally held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in 37 countries across tropical America, Africa, and Asia. The report launches a long term collaboration among the Woods Hole Research Center, Rights and Resources Initiative, …
Indigenous Peoples' right to give or withhold consent to development projects that affect their natural resources and ways of life has become stronger thanks to a new manual that guides development actors in designing and implementing such projects. The Manual on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) outlines essential ways …
A new report offers evidence that the modest investments needed to secure land rights for indigenous communities will generate billions in returns—economically, socially and environmentally—for local communities and the world’s changing climate. The report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, quantifies for the first …
The five-year project (1st October 2013-30 September 2018) entitled ‘Improving Food Security Governance in South and South East Asia through strengthened participation of organizations of marginalized farmers’ has been launched in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal with the financial support of European Aid and DANIDA/ DanChurchAid. The project aims to …
International land deals, often for giant agriculture projects, now cover an area the size of Germany and a growing share are getting up and running, fuelling fears that local residents will be displaced, the anti-poverty group Oxfam said on Monday. More than 1,500 large-scale land deals have been signed in …
RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Forest fires raging in northeast Brazil are forcing indigenous people out of their traditional territories and threatening uncontacted tribes, an indigenous leader said on Wednesday. Fire season in the Amazon and surrounding savannah normally lasts from July to November, but burning has become …
The National Food Security and Nutrition (CONSEA) submitted this week recommendations to several federal and state agencies in an attempt to urgently resolve part of the problems faced by indigenous people of Mato Grosso do Sul living in different municipalities on the border of Paraguay. Among the recommendations, they asked …
Some of the world's leading conservation groups are violating the rights of indigenous people by backing projects that oust them from their ancestral homes in the name of environmental preservation, a top UN expert said this week, according to AFP. UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz's latest report documents killings, evictions …
Although conservation interventions aim to protect biological and cultural diversity, they can affect communities in a number of ways. The vast body of international law, norms and standards protecting human rights offers little rights-based, practical guidance for conservation initiatives. Focusing on indigenous peoples, this paper aims to provide a set …
A new report focuses on the importance of indigenous peoples and local communities in countering illegal wildlife trade. A new report on combating the illegal trade in wildlife highlights the vital importance – and complexities – of involving indigenous people and local communities in conservation efforts. The report, entitled 'Beyond …
More than three people were killed a week in 2015 defending their land, forests and rivers against destructive industries, according to Global Witness. The organisation’s new report, On Dangerous Ground, documents 185 known deaths worldwide last year – by far the highest annual death toll on record and a 59% …
Encroaching on Land and Livelihoods examines whether national expropriation laws in 30 countries across Asia and Africa follow the international standards established in Section 16 of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). Section 16 …
After years of delay, Brazil has approved the creation of a sprawling reserve that would protect a highly vulnerable tribe of isolated nomads along one of the most volatile frontier regions in the Amazon rain forest. Tribal rights activists are hailing the decision, which will set in motion the labor-intensive …
