More and more people in Asia identify themselves as belonging to Indigenous Peoples. This however does not mean that we claim to be the only people native to our countries. In most cases we are the “aboriginal” or “native” people of the lands we live in, and other people have come to settle there later. But we have also lived side-by-side with other peoples, native to their own lands, who however do not call themselves Indigenous Peoples. These are usually the dominant people, who have the economic and political power in our countries. In some cases communities of Indigenous Peoples ...

Asia Indigenous Peoples’ Pact, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Forest Peoples Programme, Tebtebba, 2010 This training manual has been written for indigenous trainers who intend to facilitate a training on REDD for indigenous leaders. It has been devised for a proposed five-days training programme with five modules.

Introduction The mainstream development paradigm being promoted by capitalist countries is now proving to be very unsustainable with the worsening financial and economic crises adversely affecting the majority of the world’s population. This form of modern development is very extractive and extremely destructive to the natural environment, exploitative by nature, highly materialistic, and mainly driven by greed and profit. It has also stirred more conflicts over the control of resources in trade through economic and political dominance.

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Forest Peoples Programme, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and Tebtebba 2010 This book provides information material on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries), one of the mitigation measures now promoted for combating climate change, and its implications for indigenous peoples.

UNFRCCC Intersessional Meeting, Bangkok 2009, Briefing Paper Indigenous peoples depend on natural resources for their livelihood and they often inhabit diverse but fragile ecosystems. At the same time indigenous peoples are among the world’s most marginalized, impoverished and vulnerable peoples. While having hardly contributed anything to the cause of global warming, they are among the most heavily affected. However, they have minimal access to resources to cope with the changes.

In the age of global climate change, resource use and management practices that rely on the use of fire and thus emit carbon are coming under increased pressure. This is particularly the case with shifting cultivation. Because shifting cultivation is so different from the forms of agriculture practiced in the lowlands and by the majority populations, it is one of the most misunderstood land use systems. Thus, in the name of forest conservation and development, colonial and post-colonial governments in Asia have since more than a century devised policies and laws seeking to eradicate shifting cultivation. The reasons usually given ...

India is home to the largest population of indigenous peoples of any country in the world. Roughly a quarter of the world’s indigenous population – around 80 million people – are scattered across India, their numbers a staggering diversity of ethnicities, cultures and socioeconomic situations. They range from some of the last uncontacted indigenous communities in the world, like the Sentinelese of the Andamans, to some of the largest, such as the Gonds and Santhals of central India. They include not only communities who live under conditions of extreme destitution, but also communities with social indicators well above the national ...