Indigenous Food Systems, Agroecology and the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure: A meeting between indigenous peoples and FAO 2-3 February 2015 FAO, Rome Headquarters Indigenous Food Systems, Agroecology and the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure A meeting between indigenous peoples and FAO 2-3 February 2015 FAO, Rome Headquarters FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2015 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. © FAO, 2015 FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way. All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to [email protected]. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. CONTENTS I. Introduction...........................................................................................................................3 II. Summary of key recommendations.........................................................................................6 III. Main suggestions for collaborative actions..........................................................................8 A. FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples....................................................................8 B. Voluntary Guidelines as instruments for indigenous peoples .........................................10 C. Traditional food systems, agroecology and nutrition........................................................13 D. Mechanisms of exchange between FAO and indigenous peoples...................................14 ANNEX A. Table 1: Suggestions, proposed way forward actions and possible focal points.............................16 ANNEX B. Agenda.............................................................................................................................24 ANNEX C. List of participants..........................................................................................................28 Indigenous peoples’ representatives.................................................................................28 Participants from FAO..........................................................................................................29 Participants from other Organizations................................................................................32 ANNEX D - Opening statement by Maria Helena M.Q. Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General Natural Resources.................................33 ANNEX E - Closing Statement by José Graziano Da Silva, FAO Director-General............................35 ANNEX F - Media Monitoring...........................................................................................................37 ANNEX G - List of Acronyms...............................................................................................................38 Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan gestures the formal Maori greeting from New Zealand to the attendees of the I. Introduction meeting. ©FAO On the 2nd and 3rd February 2015, the Food and This event has also served the purpose of Agriculture Organization of the United Nations complying with the 2014 recommendation (FAO) organized a technical meeting between from the UNPFII for FAO to organize with indigenous peoples’ representatives and FAO staff. Indigenous Peoples a meeting on the Voluntary The meeting was attended by twenty indigenous Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of peoples from the different socio-cultural regions1, Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the including members of the United Nations Context of National Food Security (VGGT)2. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), political leaders, technical experts, indigenous The timing of the meeting provided the food producers and traditional knowledge-holders. opportunity to add new elements to the debate In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural initiated in two important events hosted by Development (IFAD), the International Land FAO in 2014, namely the FAO Symposium on Coalition (ILC), civil society and academia also Agroecology3 and the Second International attended the discussions. Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), coorganized with the World Health Organization (WHO). In The last time indigenous peoples’ representatives these meetings, the relevance and importance and experts met in FAO headquarters was in 2010 of traditional knowledge, indigenous food for the approval of the FAO Policy on Indigenous and systems and local environmental management Tribal Peoples. In those five years, FAO has changed rose up during the course of the discussions. significantly, opening its doors to key stakeholders including academia, civil society, cooperatives, The meeting Indigenous Food Systems, and the private sector. It was therefore important Agroecology and the Voluntary Guidelines on to do the same with indigenous peoples. tenure: A meeting between Indigenous Peoples and FAO was organized by a facilitation committee composed of five indigenous experts and the 1. Source: UNPFII. The socio-cultural regions are seven and have been determined to give broad representation to the world’s indigenous peoples: Af- rica; Asia; Central and South America and the Caribbean; the Arctic; Central and Eastern Europe, Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia; North America; and the Pacific. 2. http://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/69cedff9-d20d-5aed-8de5-1524bc24949e/ 3 3. http://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/4e651e91-f75d-4599-9dde-f70e3f26e1de/ Advocacy Unit of the Office for Partnerships, As a result of this meeting, the participants Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPCA), agreed on a series of actions which will shape a which is the focal point for indigenous peoples’ joint work plan, based on the main suggestions issues within FAO. made for how FAO and indigenous peoples could collaborate in the short, medium and long term. Together, OPCA and the facilitation committee defined the criteria to select indigenous This report includes the work plan, identifying representatives. The criteria took into account concrete steps that can be followed in relation to regional representation, youth representation voluntary guidelines (the VGGT and the Voluntary and gender balance, with one indigenous Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale representative per each of the seven regions Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and identified by the UNPFII and seven technical Poverty Eradication5, known as SSF Guidelines), experts in areas of common interest to Indigenous indigenous food systems and fisheries among Peoples and FAO. others. Other participants included the two Section II contains the key outcomes generated representatives of Indigenous Peoples vis-à-vis by the meeting, while Section III describes the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the in a narrative manner the steps to follow for two focal points for FAO in the UNPFII, the UN collaborative actions between FAO and indigenous Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (summarized in Table 1 in Annex A, which Peoples, an indigenous facilitator, a person in also identifies focal points both from FAO and charge of ensuring the follow up to the discussions indigenous organizations for each action). held in the meeting, and an author of the paper “An Assessment of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests and their Relevance and Usefulness for Indigenous Peoples.” FAO staff from different technical departments belonging to the FAO Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) on indigenous peoples also contributed to the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was fine-tuned by a group of co-facilitators composed of Myrna Cunningham (Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development and FAO Special Ambassador for the International Year of Family Farming), Andrea Carmen, (Executive Director of the International Indian Treaty Council) and Carol Myrna Cunningham was the first female Miskita governor of Kalafatic (independent scholar and expert on the Waspam Community in Nicaragua. ©FAO indigenous issues). The high level event was opened by Maria Helena Semedo, the FAO Deputy Director-General and Coordinator for Natural Resources. FAO Director- General, Mr. José Graziano da Silva, reaffirmed FAO’s institutional support during his closing remarks where he highlighted five main priority areas for FAO to work with indigenous peoples4. 4. The five areas identified by the Director General in his speech (see annexes for full text) are: VGGT (promotion and implementation); International Year of Soils; Exchange of traditional knowledge; Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS); and climate change 4 5. http://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/21360061-9b18-42ac-8d78-8a1a7311aef7/ Maria Teresa Zapeta Mendoza, of the Indigenous Women Alliance in Central America and Mexico ©FAO Victoria Tauli Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples ©FAO Carol Kalafatic, member of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (middle) together with Myrna Cunningham (left) and Maria Teresa Zapeta Mendoza (right) ©FAO 5 Kamanamaikalani Beamer (left), Director of the Kohala Center, Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan (middle), Founder of the Maori women’s centers and Carlos Batzin (right), Director of Universidad Indigena. ©FAO Jorge Stanley Icaza, Civil Society Mechanism. ©FAO Joan Carling, Secretary-General for the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. ©A.Rothe 6 II. Summary of key recommendations A. Focal points at global, regional and national level to be identified for indigenous peoples and FAO. B. Dialogue between indigenous peoples and the private sector to be facilitated. C. Technical dialogue between indigenous peoples and governments to be facilitated. D. Coordination between FAO and other UN agencies (in particular Rome-based agencies) to be strengthened. E. Free, Prior and Informed Consent to be applied in FAO activities. F. Joint implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. G. Joint implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. H. Creation of an FAO working group on indigenous food systems that includes indigenous peoples. I. Joint development and application of indicators relevant to indigenous peoples. 7 •Ensure that new FAO material, documents, normative work and policies as well as activities (projects and programmes) are compliant with the FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (2010) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) •Ensure the correct and effective application of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in all FAO activities related to indigenous peoples and develop, in partnership with indigenous peoples’ organizations, context-specific processes to be followed. Carlos Batzín, Presidente del Fondo Indígena. •Reflect in FAO’s Biannual Program of Work and Budget activities with Indigenous Peoples to ensure they are adequately considered in the work III. Main suggestions for collaborative of the Organization. actions •Sensitize and train FAO staff at Headquarters, III.A. FAO Policy on indigenous national and regional level to work with indigenous and Tribal Peoples peoples in a culturally appropriate manner. FAO: •Organize a workshop on indigenous peoples and • Actively participate in the Inter-Agency Support fisheries and aquaculture to identify priority issues and ensure greater participation of indigenous Group (IASG) on indigenous issues in the fishing communities in FAO activities. development of a system-wide action plan on indigenous peoples (as requested by the United Nations General Assembly in the Outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples 6, paragraph 31). • Support the development and implementation of national action plans on indigenous peoples with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples (as requested by the United Nations General Assembly in the Outcome document of the World conference on Indigenous Peoples, paragraph 32). •Strengthen coordination with other United Nations (UN) agencies on indigenous peoples’ Rocío Miranda, President of the “Unity of the issues. Indigenous and Peasant Force”. ©Anna.Korzenszky 6. http://www.un.org/es/comun/docs/index.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/2&referer=http://www.un.org/es/ga/69/meetings/indigenous/&Lang=E 8