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International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, Philippines When it comes to governing natural resources such as forests, a ‘good’ decision ensures that resources are used sustainably and that any use of resources by outsiders benefits local people. In indigenous communities, effective decisions are also ones that respect other beings — animals, plants and spirits. About a quarter of the world’s forests is managed locally by families, communities and indigenous peoples. Their sustainable and varied use of forests provide a broad range of economic, environmental, social, cultural and spiritual benefits, including climate change mitigation. In indigenous communities, the traditional decisionmaking processes that govern this use are marked by their commitment to consider the concerns of all. This may seem like a lengthy approach but the result is a decision that the whole community buys into and will be sure to implement. Even the best laid plans to protect forests and improve livelihoods will fail if those responsible for executing them on the ground do not believe in them or commit to act on them.
In an ideal world, local forest-dependent people, or forest ‘rights holders’, would make their own plans for sustainable development and donors would limit themselves to supporting implementation. But we do not live in an ideal world. Development planners and practitioners rarely recognise rights holders — a major hurdle to positive change. The many efforts of indigenous organisations across the world to build and implement their own development plans are small steps in the right direction. Similarly, networks such as the Three Rights Holders Group, or G3 — which brings together three alliances of forest-dependent people — are starting to amplify local voices in national and international decision-making arenas. But much work remains to be done. We must scale up success stories where communities have developed and documented their own development plans. Above all, we must break the prevailing mindset that communities are mere recipients of development and place them firmly at the centre of decision-making processes.
We must break the prevailing mindset that communitie s are mere recipients of development and place them firmly at the centre of decision-making proce sses.
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Minnie Degawan