Joint
Statement on Protected Areas
to the 7th Conference of
the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity
Friends of the Earth International
- World Rainforest Movement - Oilwatch
Kuala Lumpur, 11 February 2004
The World Rainforest Movement, Oilwatch and Friends of the Earth International
(a federation of 68 non-governmental environmental organizations from
65 countries) believe that sustainable management of protected areas
is a key pillar to biodiversity conservation. However, we have noticed
with regret the alarming rate at which protected areas are being lost
and decimated, due to the process of planning, establishment and management,
and more importantly, due to large-scale mining, oil extraction and
commercial logging activities. Most government designated protected
areas world-wide have been established at the exclusion of the rightful
owners - local communities and Indigenous Peoples - in the planning,
establishment and management of these areas. This is a clear violation
of their ownership and rights.
Where then lies the protection
and encouragement of customary use of biological resources (article
10(c) of the Convention on Biodiversity) when local communities and
Indigenous Peoples are denied the right of access, under the flag
of protection, to the very resources that belong to them, while these
resources are given out eventually to large foreign conservation organizations,
or to multinational corporations for large-scale mining, oil exploration
and logging activities.
To achieve sustainable management
of protected areas and for that matter biodiversity conservation,
we urge parties to the CBD to adopt a program of work on protected
areas that clearly includes and explicitly safeguards the rights and
interests of local communities and Indigenous Peoples throughout the
process of planning, establishment and management of protected areas.
We do not and will not believe in parks without people, and we do
not believe in a protected area program without explicit safeguards
for Indigenous Peoples' rights and other aspects of social governance.
We also emphasize the need
to include a clear reference to the rights, interests and role of
women regarding protected area planning, establishment and management.
Moreover, a work program
on protected areas can only be considered credible if it includes
an explicit rejection of mining, oil exploration, and large-scale
commercial logging activities in and around protected areas.
Also in this light, it should
be ensured that sufficient funds are allocated to national conservation
programmes, so that we don't need to sell out conservation to private
actors like foreign conservation organizations, and oil, mining and
logging corporations. We also support the call for Action of our Indonesian
colleague organizations in this regard "Conservation is not for
Concession".
Kuala Lumpur, 11 February
2004
