From Obstruction to Decolonization? 153
land, and data governance for decades, with UNDRIP standing as a key victory.
One of the many international agreements, treaties, UN declarations that resulted
from frontline grassroots community-based organizing, coalition-building, and
negotiation was the ITPGRFA itself – hence the centrality of Farmers’ Rights.
Another key example is the CBD Nagoya Protocol itself. Maria Yolanda Terán
Maigua documented her and others’ experiences in a 2016 article “The Nagoya
Protocol and Indigenous Peoples” in International Indigenous Policy Journal:
I was part of several access and benefit sharing meetings and made note of
their complicated processes. The Indigenous Peoples and local communities had to overcome confusion, fear, and disappointment in order to
finally converge to support the urgent need for national and international
instruments to defend our right to have our vision and input represented
at meetings where key concepts, articles, and negotiations were discussed
[…]. Many Indigenous Peoples felt that the Access and Benefit Sharing
International Regime was written from a Western perspective.
(Teran, 2016, p. 9)
Even the logistics of the meetings – the cost to travel and lodge on another
continent, the session timed after 6pm, with no translation service or c hildcare –
obstructed meaningful indigenous participation. Indigenous women and youth
formed networks and coalitions to strategize and overcome barriers. Nevertheless,
indigenous communities participated, according to F Lopez,
with honesty, consistency, perseverance, and decision. We put our hearts
and minds into each meeting and received the guidance and spiritual
strength from our Elders, families, and communities. Our ceremonies,
offerings, prayers, chants, reciprocal support, and tears helped us, the
Indigenous women from Latin America and the Caribbean to continue
calmly in these tiring, technical, and difficult dialogues under an umbrella
of Western paradigms.
(ibid.: 11)
For these coalitions that formed in and around Nagoya conferences, the Biocultural Community Protocols are new iterations of ancient knowledge and
methods.
Indigenous agrarian justice leaders mobilized through and with La Via
Campesina to craft and enact the UN International Declaration on the Rights of
Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (28 September 2018). This
directly asserted sovereignty and rights over plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture, and the knowledges therein (see Articles 19(a); 20(2); 23(2); 26(1);
26(3); and others). They have also helped design and populate the Civil Society
Mechanism of the UN FAO’s Committee on Food Security. They have helped
craft and mobilize the Escazú Regional Agreement on Access to Information,
land, and data governance for decades, with UNDRIP standing as a key victory.
One of the many international agreements, treaties, UN declarations that resulted
from frontline grassroots community-based organizing, coalition-building, and
negotiation was the ITPGRFA itself – hence the centrality of Farmers’ Rights.
Another key example is the CBD Nagoya Protocol itself. Maria Yolanda Terán
Maigua documented her and others’ experiences in a 2016 article “The Nagoya
Protocol and Indigenous Peoples” in International Indigenous Policy Journal:
I was part of several access and benefit sharing meetings and made note of
their complicated processes. The Indigenous Peoples and local communities had to overcome confusion, fear, and disappointment in order to
finally converge to support the urgent need for national and international
instruments to defend our right to have our vision and input represented
at meetings where key concepts, articles, and negotiations were discussed
[…]. Many Indigenous Peoples felt that the Access and Benefit Sharing
International Regime was written from a Western perspective.
(Teran, 2016, p. 9)
Even the logistics of the meetings – the cost to travel and lodge on another
continent, the session timed after 6pm, with no translation service or c hildcare –
obstructed meaningful indigenous participation. Indigenous women and youth
formed networks and coalitions to strategize and overcome barriers. Nevertheless,
indigenous communities participated, according to F Lopez,
with honesty, consistency, perseverance, and decision. We put our hearts
and minds into each meeting and received the guidance and spiritual
strength from our Elders, families, and communities. Our ceremonies,
offerings, prayers, chants, reciprocal support, and tears helped us, the
Indigenous women from Latin America and the Caribbean to continue
calmly in these tiring, technical, and difficult dialogues under an umbrella
of Western paradigms.
(ibid.: 11)
For these coalitions that formed in and around Nagoya conferences, the Biocultural Community Protocols are new iterations of ancient knowledge and
methods.
Indigenous agrarian justice leaders mobilized through and with La Via
Campesina to craft and enact the UN International Declaration on the Rights of
Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (28 September 2018). This
directly asserted sovereignty and rights over plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture, and the knowledges therein (see Articles 19(a); 20(2); 23(2); 26(1);
26(3); and others). They have also helped design and populate the Civil Society
Mechanism of the UN FAO’s Committee on Food Security. They have helped
craft and mobilize the Escazú Regional Agreement on Access to Information,