Indigenous and Afro-descendant, key in the post-COVID-19 development of America

Panama City, Apr 24- Latin America and the Caribbean must allocate more resources and include indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants in the design and implementation of strategies that allow the development of the rural world within the framework of an “action smart climate “, a window that has opened with the crisis derived from the pandemic.
There is a need to “change the development model to seek not only an economic recovery but also a transformation towards a more ecologically sustainable way of life, and here indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants play an essential role,” the official told Efe. in Policies for Indigenous People and Social Inclusion of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Mauricio Mireles.
Indigenous people and Afro-descendants represent about “46% of the rural population” of Latin America and the Caribbean and control, use and have access in an ancestral way to a vast biological wealth in their collective territories, explained the official.
These peoples “collectively control between 320 and 380 million hectares of forest (…) scientifically it is confirmed that deforestation rates in these collective territories are much lower, and this makes them the best guardians of nature” , he asserted.
This is why FAO sees “a great opportunity to work with them” and propose “specific solutions” that allow “modifying and expanding existing policies in the rural world so that they have better cultural relevance” and respect collective territorial rights. .
It is above all, Mireles stressed, that the wealth and contributions to the sustainable development goals of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples be recognized, “that is, no more seeing them from the situation of poverty, exclusion and vulnerability” than historically have suffered and that have been aggravated by the pandemic.
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FAO presented to the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), at the request of this body and with the support of the international cooperation agencies of Spain (AECID) and Mexico (AMEXCID), 18 guidelines that highlight the “priority” role of these peoples in the design and implementation of development strategies linked to the rural world and opportunities for climate action.

“We have presented a first proposal, that is, we are still working on these guidelines, on which we want to have feedback (…) it synthesizes what we have already found in the international frameworks that apply to indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants,” he said. Look at them.
These guidelines range from the right to development of these peoples and their participation in national and / or regional decision-making, through access to decent employment and expanded social protection, to legislative updates and the designation of budgets.

“All of this can only be achieved if, with the support of parliamentarians, we manage to get the countries to have specific budgets, the ministries, the secretariats to have a little money, a program, a staff specifically trained to work with the peoples. This is an elementary point for improving public policy, “said Mireles.
It is “extremely important to strengthen the capacities of parliamentarians, to continue working as we already do from FAO with the Executive, with the different ministries, to generate platforms for dialogue and to work and build public policies from the territory with the people in the territory.”
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN official explained, “there is a bad habit of building policies only from the capitals.”

But “to the extent that these policies start to be built in a participatory manner, which takes more time, more resources and is challenging in the context of the covid, that culture of consensual work will be generated and the solutions will be more coherent and relevant. You have to build from the territory, “he said.
Giovanna Ferullo M.