Botswana: Joy as Bushmen win landmark legal case
Scenes of jubilation greeted the Botswana High Court's ruling today in favour of the Kalahari Bushmen.The court ruled today that the Botswana government's eviction of the Bushmen was 'unlawful and unconstitutional', and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
The court also ruled that the Bushmen applicants have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it.
One of the judges, Justice Phumaphi, said the government's refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt 'was tantamount to condemning the residents of the CKGR to death by starvation.'
However, the judges also said that the government is not obliged to provide services to Bushmen in the reserve.
Bushman spokesman Roy Sesana said outside the court, 'Today is the happiest day for us Bushmen. We have been crying for so long, but today we are crying with happiness. Finally we have been set free. The evictions have been very, very painful for my people. I hope that now we can go home to our land.'
Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'The court's ruling is a victory for the Bushmen and for indigenous peoples everywhere in Africa. It is also a victory for Botswana. If the government quickly enacts the court ruling, then the campaign will end and the country really will have something to be proud of.'
The court case has been the longest and most expensive in Botswana's history.
An online press file about the court case, including summaries, biographies, legal precedents, photos and video clips, is available at http://www.survival-international.org/bushmenpresspack
To read this online: http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=2128
Julian Steward Award for Best Book 2005
J.Terrence McCabe's book Cattle Brings Us to Our Enemies: Turkana
Ecology,
Politics, and Raiding in a Disequilibrium System (University of Michigan
Press, 2005) has received the Julian Steward Award for best book in 2005.
The award is made by the Anthropology and Environment Section of the
American Anthropological Association (AAA) for the best book published
during the last year for ecological or environmental anthropology. The
award
itself will be presented at the AAA meeting in November 2006.
Gittaohan Nomadic Camel Caravan
Gittaohan is a collaboration Project group made up of people from
several nations, which promotes Nomadism and the respectful and
ecological use of nomadic animals.
We travel the old Silk Road with two Mongolian bactrian camels,
following the steps of all the courageous caravans before us.
Gittaohan travels to schools, organisations and festivals and recieve
hundreds of people in their camp everyday. For twenty years
Gittaohan
has made two full lengths of the Silk Road from Italy to Mongolia.
Collecting and sharing knowledge of traditional nomadic practices.
We
currently are in Turkey and are working on a bactrian camel
husbandry
program.
From every passionate member of this caravan to everyone who wants to advance and build world consciousness. Welcome!
http://gittaohan.tripod.com Email: git_tao_han@yahoo.fr
Ecological Migration: Environment, Ethnicity, and Human Rights in Inner Mongolia
Panel held at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting on
April 3, 2005, Chicago. For more information,and access to the papers
presented please visit the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information
Center website: www.smhric.org
Proceedings from the Global Pastoral Programme Formulation Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya 19-23 April 2004. Held to design a partnership and programme to build momentum for greater recognition of the need for sustainable pastoral development. Full report here (pdf 239KB). An official dossier of documents, presentations, videos & photographs which accompany the proceedings, will be made available on CD-ROM. E-mail Camillo Ponziani , UNDP-GEF, New York to request a copy. See the UNDP Drylands " Global Pastoral Programme " web-page for more details.
Fourth International Conference of Pastoralists, Guadalavier, Spain from
16-18 July 2004.
Museo de la Transhumancia. [Encuentro Internacional de
Pastores Trashumantes].
Raising awareness of the need to safeguard pastoral livelihoods in
Southern Europe and around the world & highlighting the benefits of
transhumance within the context of rangeland/mountain ecosystems.
Click here for programme.
Dr. Jean-Pierre Biber (European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism) and Camillo Ponziani (UNDP-GEF) will be attending
introducing participants to UNDP Global Pastoralism Project currently
under preparation, as well as to the work being done by the European
Forum. An opportunity to present their efforts up to date, document any
substantive discussion that ensues, and to gain valuable insight on
possible North-South linkages for the UNDP Global Pastoralism Project.
Sahara Conference Announcement:
The Sahara: Past, Present & Future
22nd to 24th June 2004
Organized by the Saharan Studies Programme (SSP),
at University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Topics include a diverse range of areas including climatic and
environmental change; archaeology; international security, and
ethnomusicology. Call for further papers on any topic of relevance to
the Sahara. Website: http://www.uea.ac.uk/sahara
Conference organiser: Jeremy Keenan.
Email: sahara@uea.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1935 891204
More details here: 2004 Sahara Conference.
IUAES: Opportunities for IUAES research development in collaboration with other research organizations worldwide
Report of the IUAES President of the meeting of Presidents of International Unions belonging to the Council for Science (ICSU). Paris, 9-10th February 2004.
Aspects that ICSU considers important to develop include: capacity building, especially in Africa; human security; linking social sciences with natural sciences; ethics; and traditional knowledge.
This meeting was followed by a sub group meeting on February 11th at the French Academy of Medicine to discuss activities in the areas of science for health and well-being, invited by the International Union of Biological Sciences.
ICSU is beginning to establish collaboration centers in various world regions where needed. Proposals are sought for interdisciplinary short courses for capacity building.
IUAES Commissions are asked for suggestions of concrete aspects in which they may like to collaborate, particularly initiatives that could be part of capacity building with other scientific Unions.
Please submit suggestions for collaboration to the Chair, Dawn Chatty.
Click here for full report.
Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC).
SMHRIC report a situation in Inner Mongolia where “Since few years ago, there have been a regional-scale massive forced eviction against ethnic
Mongolian nomadic herders in Inner Mongolia by the Chinese government under the slogans of "abolishing the Mongolian backward and primitive nomadic life-style" and "recovering the grassland eco-system". The entire herders population has become the target of relocations from their pastoral lands, and the entire livestock population has already been banned from herding.
See the campaigns section of their website for more – or email: Enhebatu Togochog at enhebatu@hotmail.com
Dana Declaration at the World Parks Congress, Durban, South Africa,
September 2003
The World Parks Congress (WPC) in Durban was a key platform for the
promotion of the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation . The congress set out future priorities related to
protected areas policy in the coming decade. These priorities were
linked to a 'Plan of Action' suggesting the practical measures that need
to be taken to realize this mission. Read the press release by Dawn Chatty, Chair
of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples who attended the conference.
Key outcomes of the representations of the Mobile Peoples group at the World Parks congress were The Durban Accord: A Global Commitment for People and the Earth's Protected Areas and also The Durban Action Plan. Of the Recommendations formally approved at the Congress that most relevant to the aims of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples is: WPC Recommendation 5.27 Mobile Indigenous Peoples and Conservation. Click here for detailed reports provided at the Dana Declaration website page on the World Parks Congress.
Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation
In April 2002, some 30 experts from around the world, with various
professional social science, natural science and policy-making
backgrounds, attended a conference in the Wadi Dana Nature Reserve,
Jordan. This conference was organized by the Refugee Studies Centre,
University of Oxford in collaboration with Durrell Institute of
Conservation Ecology, University of Canterbury; World Commission on
Protected Areas (IUCN); World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Oxfam (UK).
The Dana Declaration, a Statement of Principles, is an important product
of that meeting, where the group discussed how environmental protection
and wildlife conservation projects affect the lives and livelihoods of
nomadic and other mobile peoples.
The aim of the Dana Declaration is to ensure that future conservation
policies and programmes respect the rights of indigenous and traditional
communities, and to highlight the many areas of common interest between
mobile peoples and conservationists. It is hoped that it will lay the
groundwork for participative and multi-disciplinary approaches to
conservation that will address the specific interests of mobile people,
to the benefit of all parties.
The Dana Declaration is being widely disseminated to indigenous peoples’
organizations, NGOs, academics, professional bodies and practitioners.
An international Standing Committee has been formed to oversee progress
with the conference out puts.
Please review our web site at: http://danadeclaration.org/ and consider
joining our e-mail list serve.
Report of the International Workshop
"The Changing Face of Pastoralism in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan
Plateau Highlands" Lhasa, TAR, May 12-19, 2002
A strategy workshop jointly organized by The International Centre for
Integrated
Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and The Tibetan Academy of Agriculture and
Animal Sciences (TAAAS).
Proceedings and case studies will be published in 2003. For further
information contact Camille Richard, Rangeland Specialist. crichard@icimod.org.np
Report of Double Conference IUAES in Moscow
“Urban encounters between nomadic and sedentary people (Moscow I)”
and “The city as counterpoint of civilization: European Asiatic and Russian
Dimensions (The Experience of the Millennium) (Moscow II)”
Sukhanovo, Moscow, Russia, 7-12 June 2002
Hosted by the Russian Academy of Arts and organized by the IUAES
Commission on Urban Anthropology and the IUAES Commission on Nomadic
Peoples. Supported by the International Social Science Council (ISSC,
Paris) and UNESCO.
Research has continued on pastoral nomads, however marginalized they
have become. But the populations who have faced urbanization have rarely
been the focus of attention. Sometimes nomads are forced to adopt a
sedentary lifestyle although their worldview continues to be based on a
nomadic life. The relationship between nomads and urbanites is
characterized by a mixture of adaptation, co-operation, suspicion, trust
and conflict. This symposium sought papers that address the cultural,
political, or economic aspects of the encounter. The relation was
approached from the perspective of nomadic or of sedentary peoples, or
the perspectives of both groups may be juxtaposed.
Click here for a shorter summary or here for a more detailed report .