044 - Actions to strengthen food sovereignty and security of indigenous peoples and peasant communities
044 - Actions to strengthen food sovereignty and security of indigenous peoples and peasant communities
AWARE that indigenous peoples, peasants, and small farming communities, and other local, small-scale forms of organisation around the world have played and continue to play a key role in providing almost 80% of food for humanity and overseeing 80% of global biodiversity;
RECOGNISING, in this respect, the necessity to incorporate these communities as key players in the work to guarantee global food security and, at the same time, to recognise their issues with food insecurity expressed, mainly, in malnutrition, health problems and a growing impact on their environment, including agroecosystems, due to the effects of major changes in climate patterns and industrial agricultural activities;
FURTHER RECOGNISING that Aichi Biodiversity Target 3, which was supposed to be met in 2020, acknowledges the adverse effects of global agricultural and fishing subsidies on biodiversity and the environment, and that this threatens the ability of indigenous cultures and peasant communities to maintain their livelihoods and achieve food security;
FURTHER RECOGNISING the importance of Sustainable Development Goals 2 (zero hunger), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 12 (responsible consumption and production), 14 (life below water), 15 (life on land), 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), and 17 (partnerships for the Goals) to strengthen food sovereignty and security of indigenous peoples and peasant communities;
RECOGNISING that agrobiodiversity is a component that differentiates practices of indigenous peoples, peasants, and small farming communities, as a priority for conservation and the construction of sustainability, while providing them with resources to support their livelihoods;
OBSERVING that indigenous peoples and local communities are recognised as the central social subjects for conservation and sustainable development in Article 8, sub-paragraph j of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);
WELCOMING the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) by the UN General Assembly in December 2018;
NOTING that UNDROP calls on states to take measures aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of land and other natural resources, including through agroecology, and ensure the conditions for the regeneration of biological and other natural capacities and cycles;
NOTING that UNDROP recognises the right of peasants and other people working in rural areas to determine their own food and agriculture systems, recognised as food sovereignty by many states and regions;
RECALLING that Congress has formerly recognised the link between promoting food sovereignty and conserving biodiversity (Resolution 3.017 Promoting food sovereignty to conserve biodiversity and end hunger (Bangkok, 2004)), and has acknowledged the need for IUCN to integrate human rights issues into its work (Resolution 5.099 IUCN Policy on Conservation and Human Rights for Sustainable Development (Jeju, 2012)); and
FURTHER HIGHLIGHTING the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, Article 11) recognise the human right to adequate food as part of the right to an adequate standard of living;
1. ASKS the Director General to:
a. promote more discussions in the relevant Commissions on the relationship between food security, food sovereignty and indigenous peoples, peasants, and small farming and rural communities, taking into account the role of traditional and local knowledge, of protected and conserved areas, and of peasants’ rights to land and other natural resources as set out in UNDROP, based on the universality, indivisibility and interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights; and
b. disseminate UNDROP to all Members, and remind State Members of the importance of disseminating and implementing UNDROP, based on the universality, indivisibility and interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights;
2. REQUESTS the relevant Commissions to study options to strengthen food sovereignty and security of indigenous peoples, peasants, and small farming communities, including the role of agrobiodiversity, the adverse effects of fishing and agricultural subsidies on food security and biodiversity and ways to mitigate these, and traditional and local knowledge, among others;
3. CALLS ON Members, along with other international bodies, to promote the enactment of a decree to establish mechanisms for the recognition and protection of biocultural heritage in collective and rural territories in order to ensure the protection and autonomous conservation of agrobiodiversity, including the application of UNDROP and the rights provided therein, based on the universality, indivisibility and interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights; and
4. CALLS ON states and other stakeholders active in agrobiodiversity issues to:
a. ensure that indigenous peoples can exercise their right to free, prior and informed consent with regards to matters affecting their territories, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), in order to strengthen local governance, autonomy in agrobiodiversity issues, and the protection of traditional knowledge;
b. support indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights to priority and origin for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of their knowledge and the agrobiodiversity resources in and from their territories as set out in UNDRIP and UNDROP; and
c. recognise indigenous peoples’ traditional and ancestral knowledge related to the integrated management of biodiversity, as well as the sociocognitive construction and articulation, and the protection of biocultural heritage.
