Report on CT REDD+ Dialogue

The outcomes of the Rights-based REDD+ dialogue held in Cape Town in November 2012 have been released in a new report. The dialogue was hosted by Natural Justice with the support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation for Southern Africa and the Open Society Iniative for Southern Africa. Issues of concern regarding Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities on the African continent included the limited participation of forest-dependent communities, lack of appropriate REDD+ information, the diversity and complexity of safeguard standards which could increase communities reliance upon outsiders and experts, insufficient or lacking grievance and compliance mechanisms, limited gender awareness, that communities may not be aware of their rights, and that existing rights may not be enforced. 

Participants felt that REDD+ could offer opportunities to Indigenous peoples and local communities including enhanced participation and representation, the chance to call for greater rights especially regarding land tenure, and to seek independent monitoring of REDD+. A post-dialogue analysis of the potential of biocultural community protocols (BCPs) to address rights-based concerns within REDD+ raised during the dialogue suggests that BCPs may have the potential to address some of the key REDD+ challenges faced by forest-dependent communities. While BCPs are no panacea, they could enhance the capacity of communities to articulate their values, customs, and rights if they decide to engage with the REDD+ mechanism. 

The report can be downloaded here.

Kukula Healers Review 2012 & Plan for 2013

On 6-7 December 2012, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) attended a meeting of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association in Thulamahashe, South Africa. The Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners, a group of over 300 traditional health practitioners who developed a biocultural community protocol (BCP) in 2009, were meeting to discuss and evaluate their activities completed in 2012 as well as highlighting their aims for 2013. 

Accomplishments from 2012 included: registering as a NPO in South Africa; drafting a code of ethics for all members of the Kukula Association; creating a traditional knowledge common pool where individual knowledge is shared amongst members and with a local cosmetics company interested in the research and development of the knowledge; and collaborating with  Kruger National Park in its anti-rhino poaching efforts. In 2013, Kukula members plan to update their BCP to reflect legal developments and new priorities, to continue to develop their relationship with the cosmetics company towards and access and benefit sharing agreement, to continue to work for formal recognition as traditional health practitioners, to distribute copies of the code of ethics to all members, and to continue to support anti-poaching efforts.  The Kukula Association are also members of the African BCP Initiative and will continue to to seek the protection and growth of their knowledge, culture and the conservation of biodiversity in their area. 

Download the Kukula BCP here. 

BIOPAMA Regional Workshop - Eastern & Southern Africa

Via www.iucn.org

From 4-6 December, 2012, Gino Cocchiaro of Natural Justice attended the regional workshop for southern and eastern Africa on the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme in Johannesburg, South Africa. The workshop provided a forum for participants and stakeholders from protected areas, governments and civil society to support the planning of BIOPAMA, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the European Commission Joint Research Centre, and the Access and Benefit Sharing Capacity Development Initiative (ABS Initiative). 

Gino and Suhel al-Janabi (ABS Initiative) presented on ABS case studies, including a discussion on how the Traditional Health Practitioners of Bushbuckridge are using their biocultural community protocol to work towards a potential ABS agreement with a cosmetics company. Other sessions included presentations and discussion on regional reference information systems, refining and addressing capacity development needs, and the drafting of an action plan for the regional implementation of BIOPAMA including the identification of priority activities, identification of key national and regional stakeholders, and agreed processes for collecting data and information. 

Learn more about BIOPAMA at its website here and through its introductory brochure in English, Spanish and French.

Dialogue on Rights-based REDD+ Held in Cape Town

Cath Traynor (Natural Justice Associate) presenting on

REDD+ Safeguards.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is one of the key mitigation mechanisms under negotiation within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). If well-designed and implemented, REDD+ could offer many potential benefits but there are also numerous risks particularly to forest-dependent communities. The current UNFCCC REDD+ text outlines that when undertaking REDD+ activities, particular safeguards must be addressed and respected. These safeguards are guiding policies and measures to address the impacts of REDD+ on communities and ecosystems.

Natural Justice, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa co-hosted a Rights-Based REDD+ Dialogue from 11-12 November in Cape Town, South Africa. Over twenty civil society organisations (CSOs) and government and multilateral representatives from seven different African countries participated. Dialogue sessions included contextualising REDD+, safeguards, regional and national REDD+ readiness activities, CSO perspectives, synergising links between the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity, a REDD+ role play scenario, and biocultural community protocols. Discussions were intense and key issues raised included the roles and responsibilities of REDD+ stakeholders, who benefits from REDD+ and how, effective participation, the need for independent REDD+ knowledge brokers and advisors, local level capacity building, complexities, variations and overlaps of safeguards, lack of safeguard compliance and grievance mechanisms, and the need for independent monitoring.

Looking ahead, Natural Justice will produce a report of the dialogue, outcomes of which we hope to share at the forthcoming 18th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Doha. We will also develop an e-learning module on REDD+ Safeguards to complement the current introductory module on REDD+.

The final report on the dialogue can be accessed here.

Major New Partnership - National Khoi-San Council and Natural Justice

NKC Chairperson Cecil Le Fleur
signing the MoU

Natural Justice has established a ground-breaking relationship with South Africa’s National Khoi-San Council (NKC), the government-convened body of representatives from Khoe and San communities of South Africa. Natural Justice’s Lesle Jansen, Laureen Manuel and Johan Lorenzen presented Natural Justice’s proposed partnership with the NKC, which the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) has agreed to support, to the Council from 6-7 November, 2012, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. A memorandum of understanding committing both parties to the completion of the proposed activities was signed between Natural Justice and NKC on November 7, 2012.  

Natural Justice will support NKC to achieve three objectives through the partnership:

• Support the Council in having meaningful consultations amongst Council communities, members and with government;

• Engage in legal training for the NKC around the National Traditional Affairs Bill and its continued negotiations;

• Consult with Khoe and San communities to draft a self-governance model based on the human rights issues set out in the UN Mission report recommendations of 2005. 

The initial partnership is for 12 months but it is hoped that this will be the foundation of an enduring relationship. 

Applications Open for PLAAS Post-Graduate Diploma

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), a leading research institute of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, is now accepting applications for a Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies. Applicants must have an undergraduate degree with a 60% average in relevant subjects and at least three years of relevant professional experience, with more professional experience required for those without undergraduate degrees. 

Courses will consider structural poverty and marginalised livelihoods in southern African agro-food systems, the political economy of land and agrarian reform in southern Africa, the economics of farming and food systems, and the social and ecological dimensions of ecosystems management. 

Applications are due on 31 October, 2012. Find out more about the programme and how to apply here.

!Khwa ttu Awarded Golden Shield Heritage Award

Natural Justice partner !Khwa ttu, the San Education and Cultural Centre, has won the inaugural Golden Shield Heritage Award in the Outstanding Community Project category awarded by the National Heritage Council (NHC), the South African government institution responsible for "the preservation of the country's heritage." The Outstanding Community Project category recognises exceptional achievement for NHC projects that contribute to changing lives in the communities it targets and contribute towards making communities aware of their heritage, contribute towards poverty alleviation, and empower communities with skills for self-sustenance.

!Khwa ttu is a training centre for San youth on heritage and skills and has a fully equipped conference centre and restaurant. Its work is based on the theme “A celebration of the San culture, present and past, for a better future”. Its mission statement emphasises the restoration of the heritage of the San,  educating the general public about the world of the San, and providing training to the San in various areas.

Natural Justice is collaborating with !Khwa ttu in developing training workshops for San youth based at !Khwa ttu. The trainings will cover relevant national and international legal instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and intellectual property law relevant to indigenous plants and associated traditional knowledge. It will include case studies on claiming traditional knowledge over Rooibos and Honeybush.  

Read more about the Golden Shield Heritage Award at The New Age here. Read more about !Khwa ttu on their website here. 

Environmental Law Association Conference in Cape Town

Photo via www.elasa.co.za

On 25 August 2012, Laureen Manuel of Natural Justice attended the Environmental Law Association’s annual conference, which focused on the legal challenges facing South Africans in a changing world and country in the context of sustainable development. The conference was attended by environmental lawyers, specialist academics and authors, and government and NGO representatives. 

The conference included five sessions with topics including the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), water and waste law and management, biodiversity conservation, community involvement and energy efficiency, as well as the implications of the South African Maccsand court case which held that mining companies must not only seek permission from the Department of Mineral Resources but also from local authorities if the land is not zoned for mining. The final session included presentations on the challenges and possible solutions relating to planning and environmental law with a specific focus on land use and requisite multiple authorisations.

Sacred Natural Sites Interview

Sacred Natural Sites "IN Perspective": Indigenous Community Lawyer from South Africa from Sacred Natural Sites on Vimeo.

Natural Justice's Lesle Jansen has been featured in a new Sacred Natural Sites series of interviews with custodians, indigenous peoples, scientists, conservationists, protected area managers and others on "What is a Sacred Natural Site and why is it important to you?" Her interview discusses the sacred sites of the Khoi and San communities of South Africa and can be accessed above or directly here. More interviews from the interview series can be accessed here.

South African BABS Guidelines Drafted with Natural Justice Support

To ensure the effective implementation of South Africa’s regulations on the conservation of biodiversity and implementation of Access and Benefit Sharing, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs has promulgated new guidelines for providers, users and regulators of South Africa’s biodiversity. Natural Justice provided technical support to the Department in drafting the guidelines, and Kabir Bavikatte, Johanna von Braun and Laureen Manuel of Natural Justice drafted the second chapter for providers. 

Holding 10% of the world’s plants, 7% of its reptiles and 15% of its coastal marine species, South Africa is the world’s third most mega-diverse nation after Indonesia and Brazil. Out of this richness, the nation’s biodiversity has faced severe threats to species and ecosystems from human activities. To address these challenges, the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act (the Biodiversity Act) was promulgated in 2004 and the Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit Sharing (BABS) Regulations were passed in 2008. To support actors using South Africa’s biodiversity understand and adhere to these new requirements, South Africa’s “Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit-Sharing Framework: Guidelines for Providers, Users and Regulators” has been promulgated. 

The first section of the guidelines, drafted by Natural Justice, offers guidance to those who would provide indigenous biological resources and traditional knowledge on their uses, including discussions demarcating the discovery and commercialisation phases, elaborating upon community ownership of resources and knowledge, details on the kinds of benefits that can be expected, and guidelines on concluding agreements with users. The second section elaborates upon the requirements for users of biological resources and knowledge. It discusses permits, dialogues with communities around prior informed consent, and agreements with providers of resources and knowledge. The final section provides guidelines for regulators of bioprospecting. 

The full guidelines can be accessed here. The guidelines for providers, drafted by Natural Justice, can be accessed directly here. Learn more about Natural Justice’s work around bioprospecting in South Africa here.

Collective Statement of Khoe Tribal Groupings

On the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, representatives of the Griqua National Forum, the Khoi Heritage and Development Council, the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) and Natural Justice released a collective statement. The statement recognises the historic denial of rights and degradation of Khoe and San culture experienced under colonialism and Apartheid. It notes the continued lack of formal recognition of Khoe and San customary communities and leadership post-Apartheid. 

The declaration closes by embracing the recommendations of Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, which include: 

• Indigenous communities should be recognized as such constitutionally in parity with the speakers of the 11 official languages; 
•  National framework legislation, as recommended in the Status Quo reports should be promptly enacted with the full participation of the indigenous communities; 
• In the case of indigenous communities that were dispossessed of their lands during colonial era and discriminatory legislation or practice before the Native Land Act of 1913 positive legal and judicial action should be undertaken to enable these communities and legitimate claims for restitution within a wider perspective of human rights and transitional justice. Likewise the government is urged to provide the necessary resources and technical cooperation to these indigenous communities, enabling them to file claims; 
• Official socio- economic statistics should be disaggregated to specify indigenous communities and special poverty relief and social services delivery programs should be designed to target indigenous communities within South Africa’s efforts to meet their Millennium Development Goals.  

The full declaration can be downloaded here. Other community declarations can be found here.

IPACC Workshop in Pretoria

Photo from www.ipacc.org.za

Lesle Jansen of Natural Justice participated in a workshop hosted by Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) in Pretoria from 23-25 July. IPACC is a network of over 155 organizations in 22 African countries working towards the recognition of indigenous peoples in Africa. The workshop focused on indigenous peoples’ rights and recognition in South Africa and took place at the University of Pretoria. The participants included the representatives of the National Khoe-San Council (comprising the Nama, San, Cape Khoe, Koranna and Griqua), counterparts from the San and Nama community in Namibia and Botswana, and San youth from the Khwattu Cultural Centre. 

The workshop reviewed the current negotiations by the National Khoe-San Council and the United Nations norms and standards regarding indigenous peoples. It further reviewed the pending National Traditional Affairs Bill that will be giving formal recognition to the Khoe and San traditional leadership amongst others. The second day was an interactive session with the different government ministries. The workshop saw a presentation on UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s foundational principles of self-determination and indigenous institutions and shared platforms for policy dialogue. The last day ended with a mapping of the way forward in addressing the issues the Khoe and San community continues to face.

South Africa Consultation on BABS Regulation

On 18 April 2012, Johanna von Braun and Laureen Manuel of Natural Justice participated in a half day workshop organised by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) of South Africa on the proposed amendments to South Africa’s bioprospecting, access and benefit sharing (BABS) regulations. The workshop is one of many stakeholder consultations being held nationwide during April and May 2012. 

South Africa is a global leader in its bioprospecting legislation but there are many challenges surrounding the implementation of the environmental laws and policies. The purpose of the consultations, therefore, is to draw on the experiences and suggestions of the various stakeholders to inform the amendment process. Some of the challenges raised by participants at the workshop related to benefit-sharing and material transfer agreements, difficulties with issuing authorities, lengthy waiting periods with permit applications and the dynamics between the national and provincial legislatures. Participants called for, among other things, simplified processes where only major users of indigenous biological resources are regulated and for increased capacity and resources at the offices where applications for permits are processed. 

When the consultations are complete, the DEA will develop draft language incorporating concepts and ideas collected from participants. The proposed amendments to the regulations will be then presented to stakeholders for further comment and input.

Bushbuckridge BCP Review and Code of Ethics Drafting

Faced with discrimination, the unauthorised use of their traditional knowledge and genetic resources, and the overharvesting of the plants with which they sustain the health of their communities, the members of Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, organised themselves in 2009 and drafted a biocultural community protocol (BCP). The BCP asserts their role in maintaining community health, preserving culture, and protecting community knowledge and biodiversity. 

On 8-9 February, 2012, the 30-member management committee of Kukula gathered in Bushbuckridge to assess their BCP and to draft a code of ethics to guide all of their members’ practices. The gathering was facilitated by the chairperson of Kukula, Rodney Sibuyi, and by Natural Justice with support from the management committee of the Kruger-to-Canyons Biosphere. The meeting was part of the Africa BCP Initiative which is funded by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative, OSISA, the Christensen Fund, the Shuttleworth Foundation, and OPEN A.I.R.

In reviewing the BCP’s impact, participants examined changes in their capacity to protect their knowledge, the potential for engaging in access and benefit sharing, the protection of their biodiversity and culture, their access to resources within protected areas, and recognition of their roles as healers from the government. Generally, participants felt that advances have been made in the capacity and willingness of Kukula members to harvest resources sustainably, in their access to resources within protected areas, in their current non-disclosure agreement with a cosmetics company that may lead to an access and benefit agreement, and in recognition of their roles by government. While they felt that changes were generally positive, many are moving very slowly. To increase the pace of these changes the community highlighted two interrelated objectives; increased organisation and cohesiveness and increased awareness at the community and government level of the role of Kukula members. 

The committee then outlined the broad themes they wanted to cover within a code of ethics for all members. They then broke into groups to draft guidelines for each theme and returned to the plenary session to debate these guidelines and endorse some of them as the full management committee. The draft guidelines address the responsibilities of Kukula members: the needed qualifications; the general principles around charging fees; the importance of hygiene around the workplace, tools used and medicines prescribed; relationships with patients, other healers and doctors, and with students; and disciplinary procedures. Natural Justice will now prepare a formal document with the draft guidelines and suggested modifications based on national and international law for the management committee to review and present to the full membership of Kukula.

UCT Seminar on Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights

Pelargonium. Copyright: African Centre

for Biosafety

On the 26th of August, the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit of the University of Cape Town (UCT) held a seminar on “Traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights power and benefit sharing: case studies/evidence from pelargonium, rooibos and hoodia.” Natural Justice and the African Centre for Biosafety were invited to attend the series and present on their work with African Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) presented on the South African Rooibos–Nestle and San-Hoodia case studies. During his presentation, Gino also highlighted how biocultural community protocols have been used by some communities in Africa, Asia and South America to convey their ways of life, values, and customary laws to third parties and challenge the fragmentary nature of state law and incorporate community integrated perspectives.

Mariam Mayet, Director of the African Centre for Biosafety, presented on her work with communities in South Africa to oppose and eventually defeat an attempt by German pharmaceutical giant Schwabe to file patents over the use of pelargonium for the treatment of coughs and Tuberculosis without obtaining the consent of the communities who are the holders of the traditional medicinal knowledge of pelargonium.

Following the presentation and discussion with members of the University of Cape Town, Natural Justice met with the Legal Resource Centre, the African Centre for Biosafety, and the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit to discuss how South African communities could protect their traditional knowledge in relation to the use of pelargonium.