WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
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PRESS RELEASE Embargo: 17 February 1992
GLOBAL ALLIANCE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE RAINFORESTS
Indigenous and tribal peoples from trpical forests all around
the world have united to create a new allaince to confront the
destruction of their territories and forests.
Representatives from forest dwelling communites from the
Americas, Asia and Africa met in Penang, Malaysia, to discuss
their situation during a four day conference which concluded this
weekend.
The conference produced a 'Charter of the Indigenous - Tribal
Peoples of the Tropical Forests' and pased a unanimous resolution
setting up the 'World Alliance of the Indigenous Tribal Peoples
of the Tropical Forests.'
The historic new alliance unites for the first time Indians from
Amazonia, Central America and the southern cone of South America,
'pygmies' from Africa, tribal peoples from India and Thailand,
indigenous peopes from the Philippines, 'Orang Asli and Dayak
peoples from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, indigenous peoples
from Indonesia, as well as Melanesian peoples from New Guinea.
The 'Charter', which sets out the allaince's demands, goals and
principles, advocates a new approach to development and
conservation in the tropical forests based o securing the rights
of the forests' original inhabitants.
'There can be no rational or sustainable development of the
forests and of our peoples until our fundamental rights as
peoples are respected', the Charter declares.
The alliance demands respect for the human rights of forest
dwelling peoples and above all their rights to determine their
own ways of life and ways of organising. The forest-dwelling
peoples representatives at the conference called for an end to
the violence, slavery, debt-peonage and land-grabbing which they
endure and for the disbanding of private armies and militias.
The 'Charter' also sets out in detail the common demands of all
those in the alliance to the ownership of their traditional
territories and, recognising that 'landlessness outside the
forests puts heavy pressure on their territories and forests',
calls for land reforms to secure the livelihoods of those who
live outside the forests.
In place of large-scale development projects, logging, mining and
other destructive practices, the 'Charter' advocates an
alternative development approach based on securing the lives of
those who live in the forest and promoting small-scale community
initiatives under the control of the peoples themselves.
The 'Charter' condemns the damage caused by logging as 'a crime
against humanity' and calls for the suspension of logging
concessions on indigenous territories.
One of the first acts of the alliance was to denounce the
uncontrolled logging in Sarawak and the continuing arrests and
detention of the native people. In January Ibans from machan and
44 Kenyah from Belaga had all been arrested. Even while the
conference was deliberating, news came through of a Kelabit being
detained under the security laws and of an unknown number
further arrests of Penan from the Upper Baram.
The conference noted that some of the same logging companies
operating in Sarawak are also involved in logging Indian lands in
Amazonia. The conference called for a halt to logging on
indigenous territories in Guyana, where Samling Timber Sdn Bhd
has just formed a consortium with a Korean company and been
granted a concession to log 1.6 million hectares - equivalent in
size to a quarter of the reserved forests of Sarawak.
Similar resolutions were also issued calling for an end to oil
palm and colonisation schemes on the island of Siberut in
Indonesia, a recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to their
territories in Peninsular Malaysia, Panama, Nagaland, West Papua,
Argentina, the Philippines and Thailand.
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