C. Protected and conservation areas and the human rights to water and sanitation of indigenous peoples

65. While the establishment of protected areas and national parks is aimed at safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems, in several instances their establishment has had adverse effects on indigenous peoples. In 2016, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples noted that indigenous peoples may lose their land, sacred sites, resources and livelihoods under agreements on environmental conservation that ignore their right to self-determination and their authorities, leading to forced displacement and land expropriation. For example, forced evictions of indigenous peoples in India were allegedly justified by asserting that the presence of human beings was harmful to tigers.

66. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment noted that the post-2020 global biodiversity framework draft, which aims to protect 30 per cent of land and waters by 2030, enhances the risk of violating indigenous peoples’ rights owing, inter alia, to their absence in decision-making processes, with devastating impacts on their access to safe drinking water and sanitation once their effective participation is marginalized and their right to free, prior and informed consultation is ignored.

67.In the United Republic of Tanzania, thousands of indigenous Maasai pastoralists are at risk of being forcibly evicted from their traditional lands and their homes demolished in the Ngorongoro conservation area, which could result, among other serious impacts, in the loss of access to their traditional water sources both for human consumption and livestock.