Protected areas and environmental programmes

99. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the State:

(a) Include free, prior and informed consultation of and consent from indigenous peoples as a prerequisite for the establishment of protected areas in indigenous territories and in territories of cultural significance to indigenous peoples;

(b) Ensure indigenous peoples’ participation in the management, administration and control of protected areas;

(c) Guarantee access to and enjoyment by indigenous peoples of natural resources so that they may engage in cultural, ancestral and subsistence activities;

(d) Allocate adequate environmental funds, managed by indigenous people’s own authorities, and ensure accessibility for management of those funds.

Indigenous women and participation

101. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the State:

… (d) Recognize, by means of specific funds, indigenous women’s role in environmental conservation;

103. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the State:

(a) Gather statistics disaggregated by gender, age and disability on the indigenous peoples, in order to safeguard their rights, including those to health care and education. To this end, State institutions should work together with representatives of the indigenous peoples, including women, to develop suitable indicators that will, among other things, prevent interrelated forms of discrimination;

(b) Adopt a holistic and culturally appropriate approach to eradicating poverty in indigenous communities: To this end, the State should, among other things:…

(m) Take appropriate measures, in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to prevent and provide redress for the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated with monocultures, including pollution of soil and water, paying particular attention to the buffer zones of protected areas.