Indigenous Voices at the Table: Restoring Local Decision-Making on Protected Areas

Meeting once every decade, the World Parks Congress (WPC) is the largest gathering of parties interested in the future of protected areas. Ten years ago this gathering set a target of doubling the land area of Earth covered by protected areas to 10 percent. That goal has been surpassed, and today 12 percent of the Earth’s land surface is designated a protected area.

Indigenous Lands or National Parks?

Indigenous peoples throughout the world face many threats to their lands and territories and to their cultural integrity. While most people have heard of the negative consequences of mining, logging, dams, and other infrastructure projects, many would not list national parks and other protected areas among the threats.

In Guyana, Indigenous Peoples Fight to Join Conservation Efforts

Beginning in 1995, the government of Guyana in collaboration with the World Bank began pursuing plans to establish a National System of Protected Areas (NPAS). The idea was to establish 10 protected areas representative of the country’s ecosystems.

Here Our Culture is Hard: Stories of Domestic Violence from a Mayan Community in Belize

By Laura J. McCluskyUniversity of Texas Press 2001 ISBN 0-292-75249-0

Help or Hindrance? The Global Environment Facility, Biodiversity Conservation,and Indigenous Peoples

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is an international financial mechanism that provides grants and concessional funding to governments for activities that aim to protect the global environment in six areas: biodiversity, climate change, international waters, ozone layer depletion, land degradation, and persistent organic pollutants.

He Paua, He Korowai, Me Nga Waahi Tapu/A Shellfish, a Woven Cloak, and Sacred Places: Maori and Protected Areas

He Paua, He Korowai,Me Nga Waahi TapuHe Paua, He Korowai,

Decolonizing Co-Management in Northern Canada

Where lands and resources have been contested in Canada’s north, many Aboriginal peoples have entered into cooperative environmental resource management agreements with provincial, territorial, and federal governments.

Conservation Policy and Indigenous Peoples

The creation of protected areas has been a central element in conservation policy since its beginnings in the 19th century. From their inception, protected areas were conceived as areas of land alienated to the state and managed for the benefit of future generations but to the exclusion of residents.

Transfrontier Parks in South Africa

In southern Africa, as in other parts of the world, indigenous peoples are integral components of parks and protected areas. Indigenous Africans are mostly from hunting and gathering societies or from nomadic herding peoples.

Inequality in Australia

By Alastair Grieg, Frank Lewins & Kevin White Cambridge University Press 2003 ISBN 0-5215244-3

Indigenous Youth Killed While Protesting Eco-Park

An indigenous Garo youth was killed on January 3 by forest guards during a protest of the Ministry of Environment's Botanical Garden and Eco-Park in the Modhupur forest of the Chandranath Hills, the Dhaka Courier reported.

Talo Dam Construction Delay Holds: African Development Bank and Malian Government Implement Cultural Survival Recommendations

Cultural Survival recently attended African Development Bank (AfDB)-sponsored meetings in Mali with the Malian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

Seeking Environmental and Social Justice

An interesting new volume from the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) spotlights environmental advocacy within the world’s 11 major faiths in 60 countries to convey a simple but powerful message: Through storytelling, celebration, practice, spiritual guidance, community activism, and advocacy worldwide, faith groups can be powerful and effective partners in conservation.In the 2004 Wo

Rebkong Library and Learning Center Opens in Tibet

When the Tibet Project, a Cultural Survival Special Project, began in 1990, its ambition was to help meet the needs of over 100,000 Tibetan refugees. It began with a rug-weaving project that promotes the tradition of weaving and vegetable-dying in Tibet (see CSQ 27:2).

Protecting Archaeological Sites for Mongolian Nomads

Climbing to the top of Baga Gazrin Uul you look out over an expanse of land uninterrupted as far as the eye can see. The only breaks in these plains are the small tent structures or gers used by the nomads of Mongolia. In a country where the population density is one of the lowest in the world, the ger will appear as a white speck on the open landscape.

Protected Areas in Suriname: A Voice from Suriname’s Galibi Nature Reserve

The problems posed by protected areas are not limited to Maroons living around the CSNR. Established in 1969, the Galibi Nature Reserve covers about 400 hectares, hosts four important sea turtle species, and attracts a steady flow of tourists from the United States and elsewhere. It is also an integral part of the ancestral territory of the Lower Marowijne River Kalinya people.

Post-Calder, Canada’s Judiciary Struggles to Reconfigure Native Rights

Rarely in the history of a country is a court judgment so momentous that it causes society to reexamine basic premises. Such was the impact of the 1973 judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in Calder et al v. Attorney-General of British Columbia.

Pipelines, Parks, and People: Bagyeli Document Land UseNear Campo Ma’an National Park

The insecurity the Bakola and Bagyeli Pygmies in Cameroon’s Ocean Department are facing due to a new pipeline is an experience that has been shared by many indigenous peoples around the world. But the pipeline is not the Bakola and Bagyeli’s only concern.

New Approaches to Mining in New Caledonia

A fierce debate over the mining of nickel has recently engulfed one of Europe’s last remaining colonies, France’s tiny Melanesian archipelago of New Caledonia. Although nearly 20,000 kilometers from Paris, New Caledonia remains a French overseas territory—neither a French département nor entirely autonomous.

National Parks: Indigenous Resource Management Principles in Protected Areas and Indigenous Peoples of Asia

In many parts of Asia, parks—including sanctuaries, totally protected areas, and heritage sites—are found within indigenous peoples’ traditional territories. In some cases, indigenous peoples have been removed from parks, while others remain within park boundaries or at the peripheries.

Kakuma/Turkana Dueling Struggles: Africa’s Forgotten Peoples

By Daniel Chang YengPangaea 2002 ISBN 1-929-165-50-1

Benefiting Local Populations? Communal Reserves in Peru

Peruvian legislation on protected areas is unusual in that it includes a category with the primary objective of benefiting local populations—the category of communal reserve. Both within Peru and internationally, communal reserves are attracting attention as an innovative tool for co-management of protected areas.

Beijing’s Development Policy and Tibetans

As the juggernaut of China’s Western Development Program rolls on, the worst fears of the Tibetan people are coming true. Not only has the Chinese government moved Tibetans from their homelands, but it has also brought Chinese migrants to Tibetan areas, drastically changing the economic and physical landscape, and threatening ethnic conflict.

50 Years of Disrespect: Protected Areas in Suriname

Compared to many other countries, nature conservation has a relatively long history in Suriname. Ten protected areas were created in 1954 specifically to compensate for resource exploitation in the coastal area. Currently, 16 protected areas have been established, including one nature park (Brownsweg) and one multiple use management area; six more have been proposed.