The overall objective is to create awareness and enable increased investment in the forestry sector for food security and nutrition in Tanzania. This training manual is also meant to serve as a useful tool for sharing and exchanging knowledge and experiences across different regions (within the country) and beyond.

The project was implemented with the technical assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with support of other partners.

In this paper, FAO shares experiences and proposes actions to advance towards the realisation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to land, territories and resources, urging the countries to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights as an avenue to achieve the SDG 16.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a specific right that pertains to indigenous peoples and is recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). FPI...

Sheila Wertz, FAO Senior Forestry Officer, explains the significant role of indigenous peoples plays in biodiversity conservation.

Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) live in areas that overlap with zones high in biodiversity. These high biodiversity areas often are also rich in cultural diversity, as evidenced by the diversification of languages spoken in these areas. Considering this overlap, decisions concerning biodiversity may impact their lives. Strong knowledge about the international and national regulation and policy on biodiversity is important to enhance the full and effective participation of IPLCs in implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at all levels.

The paper also focuses on the analysis of the right to food from an indigenous peoples’ perspective and addresses the main issues of concern to indigenous peoples that crosscut the right to food - including access to natural resources, intellectual property rights and the environment.

The rights of indigenous peoples enshrined in the UN Declaration reflect existing rights affirmed in international human rights law, now placed in the context of indigenous peoples’ realities. Parliamentarians have an important role to play in ensuring the implementation of international human rights, including the UN Declaration and related legal and constitutional norms.

This section of the training module tries to capture some short key messages from agreed UN policy documents, which are intended to guide UN staff members during the planning and implementation of development processes. Adherence to this guidance should ultimately result in the improved recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights at the national level, putting policy into practice.

The purpose of the Guidelines is to assist the United Nations system to mainstream and integrate indigenous peoples’ issues in processes for operational activities and programme at the country level. The Guidelines set out the broad normative, policy and operational framework for implementing a human rights-based and culturally sensitive approach to development for and with indigenous peoples