Article 1.
We, the indigenous and tribal peoples of the tropical-forests, present
this charter as a response to hundreds of years of continual encroachment
and colonisation of our territories and the undermining of our lives,
livelihoods and cultures caused by the destruction of the forests
that our survival depends on.
Article 2.
We declare that we are the original peoples, the rightful owners
and the cultures that defend the tropical forests of the world.
Article 3.
Our territories and forests are to us more than an economic resource.
For us, they are life itself and have an integral and spiritual
value for our communities. They are fundamental to our social, cultural,
spiritual, economic and political survival as distinct peoples.
Article 4.
The unity of people and territory is vital and must be recognised.
Article 5.
All policies towards the forests must be based on mutual understanding
and respect for cultural diversity and gender perspectives, for
a promotion of indigenous ways of life, and an understanding that
our peoples have developed ways of life closely attuned to our environment.
THEREFORE WE DECLARE THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES, GOALS AND DEMANDS:
RESPECT FOR OUR RIGHTS
Article 6.
Respect for our human, political, social, economic and cultural
rights, respect for our right to self-determination, and to pursue
our own ways of life.
Article 7.
Respect for our autonomous forms of self-government, as differentiated
political systems at the community, regional and other levels. This
includes our right to control all economic activities in our territories.
Article 8.
Respect for our customary laws and that they be recognized by national
and international law, as equally valid systems of law and decision-making.
Article 9.
Where the peoples so demand, nation states must comply with the
different treaties, agreements, covenants, awards and other forms
of legal recognition that have been signed with us indigenous peoples
in the past, both in the colonial period and since independence,
regarding our rights.
Article 10.
An end to violence, slavery, debt-peonage and land grabbing; the
disbanding of all private armies and militias and their replacement
by the rule of law and social justice; the means to use the law
in our own defence, including the training of our people in the
law.
Article 11.
The approval and application of the UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples (1993 version), which affirms and guarantees
our right to self-determination, and the ratification of ILO Convention
169, which guides States in the application of some of these principles.
Article 12.
The setting up of effective international mechanisms and a tribunal
to protect us against the violation of our rights and guarantee
the application of the principles set out in this charter.
Article 13.
There can be no sustainable development of the forests and of our
peoples until our fundamental rights as peoples are respected.
TERRITORY
Article 14.
Secure control of our territories, by which we mean a whole living
system of continuous and vital connection between man and nature;
expressed as our right to the unity and continuity of our ancestral
domains; including the parts that have been usurped, those being
reclaimed and those that we use; the soil, subsoil, air and water
required for our self-reliance, cultural development and future
generations.
Article 15.
The recognition, definition and demarcation of our territories in
accordance with our local and customary systems of ownership and
use.
Article 16.
The form of land tenure will be decided by the people themselves,
and the territory should be held communally, unless the people decide
otherwise.
Article 17.
The right to permanent sovereignty over the use and ownership of
the territories which we occupy. Such territories should be inalienable,
unleasable, unmortgageable and untransferable.
Article 18.
The right to demarcate our territories ourselves and that these
areas be officially recognised and documented.
LAND RIGHTS FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS
Article 19.
Legalise the ownership of lands used by non-indigenous peoples who
live within and on the forests' margins in the areas that are available
once title has been guaranteed to the indigenous peoples.
Article 20.
Land reforms and changes in land tenure to secure the livelihoods
of those who live outside the forests and indigenous territories,
because we recognise that landlessness outside the forests puts
heavy pressure on our territories and forests.
DECISION-MAKING
Article 21.
Control of our territories and the resources that we depend on:
all development in our areas should only go ahead with the free,
prior and informed consent of the indigenous people involved or
affected. We insist on recognition of our right to veto any developments
proposed on our lands without our consent.
Article 22.
Recognition of the legal entity of our indigenous institutions and
organisations, that defend our rights, and through them the right
to collectively negotiate our future.
Article 23.
The right to our own forms of social organisation; the right to
elect and revoke the authorities and government functionaries who
oversee the territorial areas within our jurisdiction.
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Article 24.
Our policy of development is based, first, on guaranteeing our self-sufficiency,
material welfare, cosmo-visions and spirituality, as well as that
of our neighbours; a full social and cultural development based
on the values of equity, justice, solidarity and reciprocity, and
a balance with nature. Thereafter, the generation of a surplus for
the market must come from a rational and creative use of natural
resources developing our own traditional technologies and selecting
appropriate new ones.
Article 25.
Our right to self-development and to redirect the development process
away from large-scale projects towards the promotion of small-scale
initiatives controlled by our peoples. The priority for such initiatives
is to secure our control over our territories and resources on which
our survival depends. Such projects should be the cornerstone of
all future development in the forests.
Article 26.
The right of our peoples to be broadly informed, consulted and,
above all, to participate in the making of decisions on legislation
or policies: and in the formulation, implementation or evaluation
of any development project, be it at local, national or international
levels, whether private or of the state, that may affect our futures
directly or indirectly.
Article 27.
All major development initiatives should be preceded by social,
cultural, health and environmental impact assessments, carried out
with the full participation of local communities and indigenous
peoples. All such studies and projects should be open to public
scrutiny and debate by the indigenous peoples affected.
Article 28.
National or international agencies considering funding development
projects which may affect us, must set up tripartite commissions
- including the funding agency, government representatives and our
own communities as represented through our representative organisations
- to carry through the planning, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of the projects. In all such negotiations, the right
to involve technical advisers and professionals of our choice.
Article 29.
The cancellation of all mining concessions in our territories imposed
without the consent of our indigenous organisations. Mining policies
must prioritise, and be carried out under, our control, to guarantee
rational management and a balance with the environment. All mining
on our lands should be subject to our free, prior and informed consent
and should be carried out subject to freely agreed, openly negotiated,
legally binding contracts assented to by our own indigenous institutions,
communities and peoples.
Article 30.
An end to imposed development schemes and fiscal incentives or subsidies
that threaten the integrity of our lives, forests and territories.
Article 31.
A halt to all imposed resettlement programmes.
Article 32.
The problems caused in our territories by international criminal
syndicates trafficking in products from plants like poppy and coca
must he confronted by effective policies which involve our peoples
in decision-making.
Article 33.
Promotion of the health systems of the indigenous peoples, including
the revalidation of indigenous medicine and health care, and the
promotion of programmes of modern medicine, with measures to ensure
our free and equal access to them. Such programmes should allow
us to have control over them, providing suitable training to allow
us to manage them ourselves.
Article 34.
Establishment of systems of bilingual and intercultural education.
These must revalidate our beliefs, religious traditions, customs,
and knowledge; allowing our control over these programmes, by the
provision of suitable training, in accordance with our cultures;
in order to achieve technical and scientific advances for our peoples,
in tune with our own cosmo-visions, and as a contribution to the
world community.
Article 35.
Promotion of alternative financial policies that permit us to develop
our community economies and develop mechanisms to establish fair
prices for our products.
FOREST POLICY
Article 36.
Halt all new logging concessions and suspend existing ones, that
affect our territories. The destruction of forests must be considered
a crime against humanity and a halt must be made to the various
anti-social consequences, such as roads across indigenous cultivations,
cemeteries and hunting zones; the destruction of areas used for
medicinal plants and crafts; the erosion and compression of soil;
the pollution of our environment; the corruption and enclave economy
generated by the industry; the increase of invasions and settlement
in our territories.
Article 37.
Logging concessions on lands adjacent to our territories, or which
have an impact on our environment, must comply with operating conditions
- ecological, social, of labour, transport, health and others -
laid down by the indigenous peoples, who should participate in ensuring
that these are complied with. Commercial timber extraction should
be prohibited in strategic and seriously degraded forests.
Article 38.
The protection of existing natural forests should take priority
over reforestation.
Article 39.
Reforestation programmes in indigenous peoples’ territories
must be subject to our free, prior and informed consent and should
be prioritised on degraded lands, giving priority to the regeneration
of native forests, including the recovery of all the functions of
tropical forests, and not being restricted only to timber values.
Article 40.
Reforestation programmes on our territories should be developed
under the control of our communities. We should select species in
accordance with our needs.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
Article 41.
Programmes related to biodiversity must respect the collective rights
of our peoples to cultural and intellectual property, genetic resources,
gene banks, biotechnology and knowledge of biological diversity;
this should include our participation in the management of any such
project in our territories, as well as control of any benefits that
derive from them.
Article 42.
Conservation programmes must respect our rights to the use and ownership
of the territories and resources we depend on. No programmes to
conserve biodiversity should be promoted on our territories without
our free, prior and informed consent as expressed through our indigenous
organisations.
Article 43.
The best guarantee of the conservation of biodiversity is that those
who promote it should uphold our rights to the use, administration,
management and control of our territories. We assert that guardianship
of the different ecosystems should be entrusted to us, indigenous
peoples, given that we have inhabited them for thousands of years
and our very survival depends on them.
Article 44.
Environmental policies and legislation should recognise indigenous
territories and systems of natural resource management as effective
'protected areas', and give priority to their legal establishment
as indigenous territories.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Article 45.
Since we highly value our technologies and believe that our biotechnologies
can make important contributions to humanity, including 'developed'
countries, we demand guaranteed rights to our collective intellectual
property in both national and international law, and control over
the development and manipulation of this knowledge.
RESEARCH
Article 46.
All investigations in our territories should be carried out with
our free, prior and informed consent and under joint control and
guidance according to mutual agreement; including the provision
for training, publication and support for indigenous institutions
necessary to achieve such control.
INSTITUTIONS
Article 47.
The international community, particularly the United Nations, must
recognise us indigenous peoples as peoples, as distinct from other
organised social movements, non-governmental organisations and independent
sectors, and respect for our right to participate directly and on
the basis of equality, as indigenous peoples, in all fora, mechanisms,
processes and funding bodies so as to promote and safeguard the
future of the tropical forests.
EDUCATION
Article 48.
The development of programmes to educate the general public about
our rights as indigenous peoples and about the principles, goals
and demands in this charter. For this we call on the international
community for the necessary recognition and support.
Article 49.
We indigenous peoples will use this charter as a basis for promoting
our own local strategies for our actions.
