Date 2020 - 2021
Country Nepal
Implementor CIPRED / FECOFUN / NEFIN
Funding Amount 29,780
Details
Nepali legislators are in process of amending the country’s National Park and Wildlife Life Conservation Act 2039, as well as bringing its Conservation Area Management Regulations 2053 in line with the Local Government Operation Act (2017), which provides local governments jurisdiction over community forests and other natural resources. To leverage these new and important opportunities to introduce greater recognition of Indigenous and community rights across Nepal’s conservation areas, RRI Collaborator CIPRED conducted a policy review to inform community leaders and organizations of these changes. It is also preparing a field study on Nubri Valley to complement this review. Armed with these findings, Indigenous leaders from Ghandaki Province have submitted an appeal letter to the Chief Minister and other relevant ministries to incorporate the legal recognition of customary land tenure rights and practices in the Provincial Forest Act. With RRI’s support, they now plan to continue their advocacy with relevant agencies and elected bodies at federal, provincial and local levels to develop and implement laws that fully recognize Indigenous Peoples’ customary laws and practices, and ultimately advance sustainable natural resource management traditional livelihoods in the country.
Date 2020 - 2021
Country Colombia
Implementor ANT
Funding Amount 21,597
Details
With this SRM, RRI helped form the technical-legal team, which has established a coordination system to carry out the normative and procedural review in collaboration with SIT-CNTI, the ANT, and RRI along with an agreed- upon work plan. The legal team is currently carrying out the normative review process, which will be concluded in March 2021 and because of the normative review, will provide critical recommendations to be implemented by the Colombian government to resolve the bottlenecks to the administrative procedures for the formalization of collective property, the protection of ancestral territories, and the legal security of Indigenous territories.
Date 2020 - 2021
Country Nepal
Implementor FECOFUN The Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal
Funding Amount 49,010
Details
FECOFUN, which represents more than 22,000 Community Forestry User Groups (CFUGs) has challenged the impact of taxation on CFUG funds, which would otherwise be supporting forest conservation, education, livelihoods, microloans, and other activities, as per Nepal’s Community Forestry Guidelines (2014). To influence different government units and participate in the broader policy-making process, FECOFUN has worked with government stakeholders at various levels to harmonize the taxation structure into a single, unified tax policy.
As a result of FECOFUN’s efforts:
- Nationally, removal of 15% tax on Sal and Khayar species;
- In Provice 1, removal of additional 15% taxes imposed on other species;
- In Bagmati Province, the provincial government is in continuous discussions with the Federal government, and have formed a committee;
- The Ministry of Federal Affairs is engaged to remove the 10% tax required by the Local Government Operation Act;
- Nepal’s Finance Minister has committed to drop the 25% income tax in the upcoming Finance Act; and
- FECOFUN is in discussions with the policy-makers and stakeholders of Province 2, Gandaki Province, Lumbini Province, Karnali Province and Sudurpaschim Province.
These provinces are in the process of drafting their Provincial Forest Act, and FECOFUN is campaigning to remove tax provision in those policies.
Date 2020 - 2021
Country Brazil
Implementor ISA and Collaborators APIB and COIAB
Funding Amount 29,893
Details
This SRM is supporting a concerted strategy to pressure the government to revoke the bill and prove its unconstitutionality due to its impacts on the fundamental rights of IPs to their territories, their self- determination rights, and their control over their traditional seeds and food production system. RRI is providing key added value to this process by supporting ISA’s preparation of a legal-technical analysis with Indigenous leaders, which it is using to directly engage members of the congress and prepare arguments for the congressional review. ISA will also disseminate the demands of the leaders through an advocacy and communications campaign to influence public opinion and put additional pressure on the congress to revoke the bill. Congress’ review of the bill and the implementation of the project were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and is now expected to be completed in March 2021. ISA has initiated discussions with Indigenous leaders to establish a consensus on their demands and the messaging of the communications campaign. In addition, they have defined key issues, technical arguments, and advanced in systematizing the experiences of IPs with mining projects in other countries to build a comprehensive analysis to defend Brazilian IPs against the passage of this bill.
Date 2020 - 2021
Country Nicaragua
Implementor CADPI (Center for the Autonomy and Developmen t of Indigenous Peoples)
Funding Amount 49,601
Details
Through this SRM, RRI is providing critical added value to Indigenous territorial security in Nicaragua by enabling the local Indigenous authorities to consolidate their norms for territorial governance systems and collective property and negotiate with non-Indigenous actors in their territories, which are two critical processes and conditions that will enable them to finalize the “saneamiento” process. The Indigenous authorities have worked in coordination in a series of regular meetings with the members of the Interinstitutional Commission integrated by the national military and police forces, the Attorney General, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Secretary of Development of the Caribbean coast region, and the regional government to consolidate the saneamiento process and enforce agreements with third parties that occupy the Indigenous territories. The activity concluded in 2021. At the time of reporting, in December 2020, CADPI facilitated the completion of four draft territorial governance norms through community consultations and the support of a legal team. They also secured additional resources from the regional government and local municipalities to expand the legal team and the community consultation process. Finally, CADPI implemented a complementary communications strategy to inform Indigenous communities on this process through radio broadcasts in culturally appropriate languages, a documentary, brochures, transmission of meetings with the regional government, and local television.
Date 2020 - 2021
Country Indonesia
Implementor AsM Law Office with AMAN INHU & Nagari Institute
Funding Amount 37,827
Details
This SRM support enabled evidence gathering of abuses, consolidation of the community, preparation of legal documents and facilitation of discussion with local authorities and RSPO. The community has submitted their complaint to the RSPO. Support to the Talang Parit is timely as the extension of the oil palm concession on their land is being negotiated. This is a two-pronged strategy to defend Talang Mamak rights through the RSPO complaints process and the National Land Agency. So far, the capacity of the Talang Parit to advocate for their rights was strengthened, an FPIC process conducted on the options open to Talang Mamak Community to address their conflict with PT Inecda Plantations, and a meeting facilitated for community representatives to meet RSPO in Jakarta. Evidence was gathered through Community based Monitoring and a case filed to the RSPO also SinarMas (as Inecda is its supplier). The support is instrumental to ensure that Talang Mamak community gained confidence to proceed with an RSPO complaint against the PT Inecda palm oil plantation. AsM is also facilitating the community’s complaint against the extension of the concession to the company with the Regional Office of Land Agency (BPN) in Riau Province. In anticipation of criminalization of the community in response to their RSPO complaint, a lawyer has been appointed to provide legal protection and the media will be mobilized.
