CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

Sharing Responsibility for Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and
Rural Development (SARD): The Role of EU and US Stakeholders
A Transatlantic Dialogue
 Lisbon Portugal, January 24-26, 2001

Notes for Plenary Presentation by Carol Kalafatic, International Indian Treaty Council

(Intro self, thank Luso-American Foundation, European Partners for the Environment and others,
IITC intro, history, etc.…)

IITC also has active input into national and international networks and bodies that include Indigenous Peoples among their issues, such as the IUCN-World Conservation Union (newly formed Indigenous Peoples' Advisory Committee), and the EPA (National Environmental Justice Advisory Council/NEJAC).

Today I'll be talking about the SARD concerns and contributions SPECIFIC to Indigenous Peoples, as well as the failures of the dominant development paradigm. Tomorrow, I'll mention successful cases of the use of cultural indicators for sustainability, and examples of successful partnerships between Indigenous Peoples and non- Indigenous Peoples.

My presentation is based on about 30 years of collective work by Indigenous Peoples at the international level, and the work of many Indigenous Caucuses in many fora and at many levels, including the WTO's Third Ministerial Meeting in Seattle.  I'll read briefly from Indigenous Peoples' Seattle Declaration, written by members of more than 20 organizations and networks, (representing millions of people).  Besides being a detailed critique of trade liberalization, it touches on specific WTO Agreements, including the Agreement on Agriculture:
    
    "  ...  The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), which promotes export competition and import liberalization, has allowed the entry of cheap agricultural products into our communities. It is causing the destruction of ecologically rational and sustainable agricultural practices of Indigenous Peoples… Small-scale farm production is giving way to commercial cash-crop plantations further concentrating ancestral lands into the hands of a few agri-corporations and landlords.  This has led to the dislocation of scores of people from our communities who then migrate to become the urban homeless and jobless."

We ended by challenging the WTO to re-define its principles toward a "sustainable communities" paradigm:
    
        " …    Indigenous Peoples, undoubtedly, are the ones most adversely affected by globalization and by the WTO Agreements.  However, we believe that it is also us who can offer viable alternatives to the dominant economic growth, export-oriented development model.  Our sustainable lifestyles and cultures, traditional knowledge, cosmologies, spirituality, values of collectivity, reciprocity, respect and reverence for Mother Earth, are crucial in the search for a transformed society where justice, equity and sustainability will prevail."

Indigenous Peoples are like the canary-in-the-coal-mine for all Peoples of the world.  We carry millennial knowledge founded in generations of hunting & agricultural practices, land management & sustainable water use, and even architecture.  We also have a historic interdependence and relationship with specific ecosystems.  Many of our traditional practitioners are experts in reading indicator species that could give early signals of coming environmental or food catastrophes, and meteorological changes (e.g., Inuit in the Arctic region):

The maintenance of Indigenous Peoples' cultural and spiritual relationships with the natural world are key to our survival as Peoples or civilizations:

The maintenance of these cultural and spiritual relationships is also vital to the conservation of biodiversity, and to our TECHNICAL contributions to SARD.  Borrowing from the Community Agriculture Policy of the European Union and their term, "eco-conditionality", we might prefer the term "culturo-conditionality".

I'd like to offer some statistics:

Specific dangers we face are from natural resource exploitation by trans-nationals and even National Institutes of Health (biotech, bio-piracy, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights regimes, etc.)

But the root of the problem is over 500 years old… it's a fundamental clash of world views:

How is all of this related to Sustainable Agriculture?  I'd like to link some of my thoughts with some of the ideas on poverty and empowerment that Bill Vorley mentioned in his paper:

Besides (and often because of) a history of colonization, land theft and genocide -- which was officially recognized as also being part of the 20th century experience of Mayans in Guatemala -- Indigenous Peoples suffer some of the worst health and mortality rates in the world. These factors endanger our resilience as Peoples as well as our ability to maintain our sustainable practices.  Briefly:

For Indigenous Peoples, agriculture is based in part on highly developed social organizations and systems.  If our health as individuals and communities is breaking down, how can our systems survive?  Also, the millennial knowledge and even the very seeds that have been developed over generations are in danger of being lost to unsustainable practices and other imposed development projects and intellectual property rights regimes.

The challenge ahead is to support Indigenous Peoples in their efforts to:

1. Protect and practice their traditional knowledge systems
2. Combine traditional and contemporary technologies (e.g., advanced imaging systems such as GIS)
3. Implement successful programs such as those which they've designed for buffalo and salmon restoration

The Traditional Native American Farmers' Association estimates that Indigenous Peoples cultivated 65% of the crop varieties consumed throughout the world. Our role as partners with you all is vital for this and many other reasons.

To conclude, I'd like to offer 4 suggestions for fundamental elements of a framework for sharing responsibility for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development:

1. For Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized stakeholders, we must have direct and meaningful participation in policy making at all levels, so that we're not merely "rubber stamps" for business as usual
2. We must be assured of a cross-sector approach to policy making so that agriculture, energy, forest and other inter-related policies are harmonized
3. For Indigenous Peoples, the #1 priority is the recognition of our right of Self Determination as dictated by international law.  This implies recognition of our comprehensive human and collective rights to access, manage and "own" our lands and territories, and requires the establishment and implementation of legal mechanisms to safeguard these rights (e.g., reforms in national constitutions).
4. We all must work together to ensure that cultural indicators (such as the spiritual) become a formal part of our approach and analysis with regard to SARD