803 #ClimateEmergency #UN #Indigenous
"Indigenous delegates at the UN raise alarm on voluntary isolated peoples"
by Aimee Gabay for Grist [Apr 28, 2025] [Audio avialable]
https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/indigenous-delegates-at-the-u-n-raise-alarm-on-voluntary-isolated-peoples/
Quotes:
"Deforestation in the Amazon is closing in around isolated communities."
"At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world’s largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from South America are taking the chance to spotlight threats facing isolated peoples, also known as uncontacted people."
"Deforestation is closing in on some communities in the Amazon and many lack official recognition of records of their existence, say representatives at the 10-day gathering in the U.N...."
“There needs to be greater respect, protection and land demarcation for these peoples,” said Bushe Matis, general coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari. “It’s important for us Indigenous peoples who came to New York to raise our voices for them.”
"The rights of isolated Indigenous peoples are guaranteed in ../\..the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization."
"Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, also known as PIACI, are threatened by the exploitation of natural resources, drug trafficking, illegal logging, and mining in their lands, say researchers."
"“The issue is of utmost importance because these peoples are the ones who also help protect Indigenous territories with their ancestral knowledge,” said Eligio Dacosta, the president of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Amazonas, or ORPIA, in Venezuela."
"Jamer López, the president of ORAU, said the primary concern of Indigenous leaders and organizations at the forum is to secure the territories their isolated brothers and sisters have ancestrally occupied."
"While there has been past progress in Peru, he said the state, rather than guarantee the protection of these communities, has promoted policies of land possession, such as laws that obstruct and prevent the creation of Indigenous reserves for isolated peoples. The government is favoring the interests of big business which want to expand forestry concessions and oil fields in these areas to boost economic growth, López said."
"For more than 20 years, Indigenous organizations in Peru have petitioned the government to create Yavarí Mirim, a 2.5 million-acre Indigenous reserve on the Amazon border with Brazil and Colombia that would protect hundreds of isolated and initially contacted peoples in the region."
"Darío Silva Cubeo, told Mongabay a “very serious concern” in Colombia is that despite having a decree to protect isolated peoples, to date, there has been little implementation and there is no public policy on the matter, such as a contingency plan in case of contact."
"In Colombia and many other countries in South America, many people in isolation are threatened by organized groups, such as illegal miners and drug traffickers, who encroach on their homes and cause violence and displacement. “They are being besieged precisely by the chains of crime,” Lena Estrada Añokazi, Colombia’s minister of environment and sustainable development said at the forum."
"Across South America, states only recognize and guarantee the rights of peoples in isolation whose presence has been officially recorded. In Venezuela, for example, although NGOs have confirmed four records of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, the state has not recognized any of them."
"Dacosta said people in isolation have already been affected in some regions as mining gradually pushes their displacement.../\.. Currently, they are not included in its constitution, and the country has no established protocols to recognize them in laws and supreme decrees."
"According to the report, there are 188 records of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation in South America but only 60 are officially recognized by the state. “This means that, for the state, 128 records don’t exist,”
"Last month, Colombia created an over 2.7-million-acre territory to protect the Yuri-Passé Indigenous peoples living in isolation between the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers in the Amazon.
“In order to protect them, we must protect the territories they inhabit,” Estrada said."
"Julio Cusurichi, a Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous leader ../\..want to see the implementation of a control and surveillance system in Peru to protect the PIACI which involves the participation of the communities surrounding these reserves.
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