| |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC) is a network of over 155 indigenous peoples' organisations in 22 African countries.
IPACC is a membership network. Voting members are found in: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo Republic, DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Botswana, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. New associations are joining or emerging in Central African Republic and Ethiopia.
IPACC is operative in six geographic and cultural regions:
North Africa, West Africa (Sahara), Sahel-Horn,
Central Africa (Rainforest), East Africa and Southern Africa.
[ View overview map of Regions ] |
|
|
 What is new at IPACC?
COP15 Climate Change
IPACC delegates from across Africa have arrived Copenhagen, Denmark for the 15th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2009 saw some of the worst weather related disasters for IPACC members, including a devastating drought across northern Kenya and heavy flooding, destruction of homes and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the Sahara and across West Africa.
IPACC Films at the Development and Climate Film Festival, 12-13 December, Koncerthuset, Copenhagen - see Calendar
IPACC leaders from East and Central Africa met in Bujumbura, Burundi in late October 2009. The leadership from Gabon, Cameroon, Chad, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Uganda and Kenya have prepared a statement for COP15, dealing with both adaptation and mitigation. The core message is that indigenous peoples are acutely affected by climate change, they have valuable knowledge about the environment and adaptation, and they are willing to be partners in finding national and global solutions to this crisis. Now they need African states to recognise them, as required under the African Charter and the UN Human rights standards.
On the website, we are making some changes to make documents, videos and information related to COP15 more accessible. Check out the new Video link on the left hand menu. There is a powerful new video from northern Kenya filmed during the drought in September 2009. Also please update the calendar for side events but sending an email to IPACC Secretariat or leaders in your country.
Gabonese indigenous peoples organisations and NGOs met in Libreville on 29-30 September to review their country's R-PIN on REDD. Leaders agreed that REDD may be an important instruments for funding community forestry and conservation, particularly around Protected Areas. Participants encouraged the Ministry of the Environment to work closely with Civil Society, as well as the Focal Point on CBD, the National Parks Agency and the Ministry of Water and Forestry. See news item.
IPACC delegates have attended each of the UNFCCC intersessional meetings on Climate Change. Kanyinke Sena has been appointed as the Civil Society representative to the UN REDD process globally. Sena is also working on the Kenyan national REDD preparedness plan and assists the World Bank on its Technical Advisory Panel. REDD workshops have been run in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and new workshops are scheduled for Gabon and Burundi.
See Calendar and News updates for details.
IPACC's purpose is to unite diverse community based indigenous peoples' organisations into a network and alliance for effective advocacy. IPACC's elected Executive Committee is dedicated to the co-ordination of advocacy strategy and activities which promote the rights and voices of indigenous peoples at national, sub-regional, African and international levels.
IPACC promotes recognition of and respect for indigenous peoples in Africa; promotes participation of indigenous African peoples in United Nations' events and other international forums, and strengthens leadership and organisational capacity of indigenous civil society in Africa.
IPACC supports contact visits between indigenous peoples and inter-country cooperation and training. IPACC also conducts pilot projects related to the inter-generational transmission of traditional knowledge of biodiversity; Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling - a type of participatory landscape mapping; the assessment and certification of tradtional knowledge of tracking; and innovative approaches to fighting poverty by using sustainable indigenous approaches to natural resources management.
IPACC works in partnership with the Technical Centre for Agricultural Cooperation with Rural Areas (CTA EU-ACP); Cybertracker Foundation; African Biodiversity Network; Indigenous Information Network, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Global Diversity Foundation and UNESCO's working group on Education for Sustainable Development.
|
|
|
Video : Fighting for Survival - Indigenous Peoples & Climate Change in Kenya
|
|
Video : Fresh from the Ground - Traditional Plant Knowledge in the Cyber Age
|
|
Video : IPACC on Climate Change
|
|
Video : Protecting Africa's Forests: Indigenous Peoples Tackle Climate Change
|
|
 Who is indigenous in Africa?
The rights of indigenous peoples in Africa have been formally recognised by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in 2003, and then approved by the African States with the passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the General Assembly in 2007. Still, there is some confusion about the meaning of the term and still some resistance by certain civil servants and diplomats who have not followed the evolution of these rights standards.
Peoples claiming to be ‘indigenous’ in Africa are mostly those who have been living by hunting and gathering or by transhumant (migratory nomadic) pastoralism. These are distinct peoples who's economies and cultures are different from the national dominant cultures. They are reliant on the sustainable use natural resources. Their cultures are closely linked to the special environmental conditions under which they have survived - for example deserts, oases, mountain territories, savannah drylands and equatorial rainforests.
The legal concept of 'indigenous' rights in Africa is a new one. All Africans are 'indigenous' in the literal sense of the word. The rise of an organised civil society claiming rights as indigenous peoples is tied to major economic and environmental changes in Africa which are putting nomadic, transhumant, hunting and herding peoples at risk.
The main risk for indigenous peoples is land alienation and the loss of biodiversity caused by agricultural settlers and extractive industries such as logging and mining. Climate change is also amplifying these problems, reducing the capacity of ecosystems to support rural communities.
Colonialism entrenched the power of agricultural elite within the State structure. The State in Africa often works in concert with international capital and multinational corporations to alienate valuable natural resources which place both biodiversity and cultural diversity in jeopardy.
IPACC recognises that all Africans should enjoy equal rights and respect. All of Africa’s diversity is to be valued. Particular communities, due to historical and environmental circumstances, have found themselves outside the state-system and underrepresented in governance. These ‘first-peoples’ or ‘autochthonous peoples’ have associated themselves with the United Nations’ standards on the rights of indigenous peoples. This is not to deny other Africans their status; it is to emphasise that affirmative recognition is necessary for hunter-gatherers and herding peoples to ensure their survival. IPACC uses the language of the CBD to note the common interests of indigenous and local communities .
IPACC's value system has developed through years of dialogue between indigenous leaders. IPACC emphasises the important link between biological diversity and cultural diversity, and the fundamental role that natural resource users have in conservation and wildlife management. IPACC operates within the framework of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, affirming the integrity of the state while assuring that democracy is only alive when all peoples have the right of self-determination and to play an active role in natural resource management and good governance.
IPACC affirms three core principles: participation of indigenous peoples in decision making, pluralism in African economies that allow for sustainable hunting and gathering, nomadic pastoralism, fishing and other non-agricultural activities in arid, semi arid and humid forest areas, partnership between indigenous peoples, their respective States and the private sector to find sustainable and mutually acceptable solutions to challenges of the environment, quality of life and good governance.
In November 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted a report of its working group recognising that there are indigenous peoples in Africa whose rights are being violated. In September 2007, all but three African states voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Three states abstained and non-voted against. Legal mechanisms to protect indigenous rights are being adopted in Burundi, Congo Republic, South Africa and Ethiopia. Policy dialogue is taking place in Morocco, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Burundi, Gabon, Angola and Namibia.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
Content of this website is copyright IPACC 2007, Terms and Conditions of Use
|
|
Powered by StudentWorx |
|
|
