We Need Respect and Humility to Hear the Voices of the Disenfranchised

Andy Egan’s World Forestry Congress Blog

On Sunday I attended the last part of the pre World Forestry Congress (WFC) event on community based forestry organised under the banner of the Forest Farm Facility.  One might have expected with this being the first ever WFC held on the African continent that the room would have been full of community-based organisations (CBOs) from across Africa. However while there were some representatives from Indigenous Peoples organisations from Mesoamerica and Asia and from producer groups, there was just one CBO from Kenya and possibly one from South Africa. This meant that more than 50 African countries had not even one CBO there.

If this situation was not already concerning enough, the organisers (the FAO and other partners in the Forest Farm Facility) then circulated a draft Declaration written in very technocratic language which claimed to be the voice not even of the CBOs who were not there but of the local communities that CBOs work with. Personally I found this to be unethical; even if well-intentioned. I did challenge this and I have had some support from other participants that this should be changed.

However the final text did not change much. It claims:

“We are Indigenous Peoples, local communities and family smallholders – women and men, young and old. Strong evidence backs our assertion that we maintain and restore forests and sustain livelihoods on a vast scale. Combined we are and always have been the largest investors in forests…”

“We have met to consolidate and deliver our message to the XIV World Forestry Congress…”

“Engage with us as equal partners. Support us. Invest in us. We have the numbers. We have the knowledge. We are a big part of the answer.”

But who is the “we” and “us”. The declaration does not say. It just features 13 logos including those of the FAO, IIED, IUCN, Forestry South Africa and a number of international umbrella organisations for farm producers and indigenous peoples. Not even one local community-based organisation is there.

While it may be true that many people from Indigenous and local communities would support many of the points, the irony of the ninth and final point of the declaration should not be lost:

“The absolute necessity of, and the value in, involving Indigenous People, local communities and family smallholders, including women and youth, in national, regional and global policy development and implementation in managing forest landscapes, thereby meeting local needs and generating global benefits.”

This is a lesson for all of us involved in trying to support CBOs and the communities they work with to allow these organisations and communities to speak for themselves in their own voices. This requires self-awareness, humility, respect and learning. In fact it may be better expressed as a process of unlearning; of actively challenging ourselves to change the current unequal paradigms of power.

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