Farmers stand in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

In February, Sam Roddick and Jyoti Fernandes attended a historic gathering in the Amazon to listen to indigenous leaders, then arranged a meeting between Chief Raoni of the Kayapo and Lord Zac Goldsmith – the minister of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. Chief Raoni urged Lord Goldsmith to take action to protect the human rights of indigenous leaders and support their efforts to protect the heart of the Amazon. He explained that a critical action the UK can take, is to stop imports of soya that is grown illegally on demarcated indigenous land.

The due diligence law is based on the laws of producer countries: businesses in the UK – many of which will be animal feed importers- would need to ensure they are following local laws relating to land use and land ownership. There are cases where these laws protect indigenous communities – for example, by recognising the indigenous ownership of forests and requiring changes in land use to be supported through free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of local communities. Where local laws that relate to land use and land ownership also protect indigenous communities, these will be in scope of the due diligence regulation.

It is important that we, as farmers, support this legislation because almost all of the soya imported into the UK is used in animal feed. It is likely that any opposition to this legislation will come from feed companies. We need to let our MP’s know that we, as farmers, want animal feeds that aren’t grown on the territories of indigenous people. We also need to let them know that there are alternatives to soya based feed.

We are fully behind this legislation but the legislation falls short. Indigenous peoples’ land rights are not always legally recognised, either because there isn’t yet a national law or because the land claims that communities have lodged are yet to be legally recognised. We are urging Government to put international programmes in place to support indigenous rights and accelerate land tenure reform. We are in particular interested in improving land registries alongside other avenues to effectively bring indigenous land claims in to scope of the due diligence regulation.

The measures introduced require Government to review the law’s effectiveness of the legislation every two years and set out any steps they need to take if  if they do not see progress. We will continue to support communication from indigenous people’s representative organisations and Government so they know what is happening on the ground.

For the due diligence legislation to be delivered as intended we need to push Government to do these things:

• Enact regulation as soon as possible to get the system working
• Understand that legality is just a baseline – government should plan for stricter sustainability standards in future
• Broaden the remit for due diligence to minerals (like gold) which have an impact on biodiversity as they are extracted
• Set a “global footprint” target in the Environment Bill to back up these commitments

The due diligence legislation forms one part of a wider package of measures to reduce commodity driven deforestation which Government recently set out in our response to the findings of the Global Resource Initiative, including through future trade policy standards, public procurement, and a package of support for indigenous people to be launched at COP 26.

On the 11^th of November Minister of State Lord Goldsmith hosted a roundtable to provide an opportunity for individuals from the global community of indigenous peoples and their representatives to share with us what they know to be working for these communities in terms of programmes and policies at both the national and international level. The LWA has been working with the COP 26 team to ensure the many indigenous networks, including those associated with La Via Campesina, are connected to the development of programme to support indigenous people.

The participants at the roundtable identified COP26 presidency and the G7 as unique opportunities for the UK to set the standard and take a leading role internationally in  stewardship of nature as a way to meet the UK’s global climate and biodiversity targets. They specifically for asked for support in stemming violence towards environmental defenders and securing land rights. There was also a desire for the UK to coordinate donor efforts and to design initiatives, in the spirit of the UN Decade of the Ecosystem, in collaboration with indigenous peoples and asked the UK to pledge a substantial financial commitment in support of indigenous people as a way to mobilise other countries into action.

The LWA will be asking our members to mobilise in support of amendments to the Environment Bill to strengthen the due diligence legislation, so watch this space!