This year’s conference will focus on Indigenous Peoples and Climate Changes. Papers will trace the impact for Indigenous Peoples on the climate changes globally. The expansion of Oil Palms and Bio Fuel will also be highlighted at the conference.

The close ties to the land and the quest for control over traditional territories has been central in the Indigenous struggle. A central question will be: How are indigenous rights affected by the expansion of Oil Palms and Bio Fuel? The speakers will in different ways address the question above.

Demand for bio fuels is destroying tribal peoples’ land and lives, according to indigenous representatives at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), meeting currently in New York.

A report presented to the UNPFII refers to ‘increasing human rights violations, displacements and conflicts due to expropriation of ancestral lands and forests for bio fuel plantations.’ One of the report’s authors, UNPFII chairperson Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, has said that if bio fuels expansion continues as planned, 60 million indigenous people worldwide are threatened with losing their land and livelihoods.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Colombia all plan to expand their palm oil plantations. Indonesia has announced plans for plantations in Borneo, projected to displace up to 5 million indigenous people, and 5 million hectares, much of it indigenous land, has been set aside for palm oil in Papua. Colombia is planning 6.3 million hectares of plantations, which could affect more than 100 indigenous communities.

Among our key note speakers is Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. Tauli-Corpuz (Igorot) , an indigenous activist from the Cordillera region in the Philippines and co-president of the board of the International Forum on Globalization. She is head of the Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) in the Philippines. Tauli-Corpuz is also chairperson of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations and convenor of the Asian Indigenous Women’s Network. She is the elected chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz will in her speech focus on The Oil Palm Industry and the lack of protection of Indigenous Peoples Rights.

Among our speakers we also have invited Mina Susana Setra who is a member of the Pompakng Peoples, a sub-group of the Dayaks, who live on the Island of Borneo. Mina Susana Setra represents Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara [AMAN] or Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago. AMAN is an independent social organisation composed of indigenous people’s communities from the whole of the country. The Alliance is aimed to be an organisation for indigenous peoples to struggle for their existence and rights inherited with it as well as to struggle for sovereignty in running their lives and in managing their natural resources. Mina Susana Setra will focus on “Palm Oil and Land Acquisition in Indonesia – Implications for Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples”.

The conference languages will be English, Spanish and Sami. 

Programme