KATHMANDU, June 15: Project Expedite Justice has published a report on indigenous people (IP) and protected areas (PAs) to highlight and amplify the claims, research, and documentation that IPs and other stakeholders have embraced for years.
The report also aims to provide a global view to appreciate the opportunity for action, notably by identifying common elements, trends, and patterns related to the creation and enforcement of PAs.
According to the report, ‘Trapped Outside the Conservation Fortress: The Intersection of Global Conservation Efforts and Systematic Human Rights Violations,’ the IPs are exposed to and suffer a series of evictions, land dispossessions, and displacements. These forced migrations are often marred by violent crimes or abuses against IP’s bodily integrity and property, including beatings, rape, looting, and torching of property.
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In context of Nepal, the report states that the government illegally displaced IPs from the Chitwan district to create a national park that overlaps with their traditional land. In 1973, around 20,000 Tharu people were relocated without compensation.20 As some IPs have managed to stay or return to their ancestral lands, violent evictions in Chitwan National Park (CNP) still happen today, mostly carried out by park authorities and personnel of the Nepali Army.
According to the report, The CNP Regulation grants IPs the right to pursue fishing, their traditional occupation. The CNP warden or officials can issue fishing licenses to IPs. However, IPs have been harassed when they asked for the permit, their goods have been seized, and they have been accused and charged for being/assisting poachers.
Similarly, the Nepali Government displaced thousands of IPs during Bardia National Park’s (BNP) creation and subsequent expansion. The military and armed guards forcibly imposed the park’s creation on IPs.
The report focuses on two main categories of human rights violations. The first category includes violations of the right to food, healthcare, and related human rights violations, as IPs cannot access sufficient resources to cover their needs. Thus, leading to malnutrition and sickness. The second category includes violations of cultural rights, given that access to ancestral land and the practice of traditional sustenance activities is central to IPs’ identity.
The report conducted in-depth research on 10 PAs of the countries like Nepal, India, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon.
