Three Basins Summit slammed by Indigenous, environmental, and human rights organisations

Extractivism is a major threat to the forests, but is ignored by the Summit

PHOTO Credit: Three Basins Threat Report

Last week saw the Three Basins Summit in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. The three basins refers to the Amazon, Congo, and Borneo Mekong Southeast Asia. The third isn’t actually a basin, but according to the summit’s website, the three regions account for “80% of the world’s tropical forests and two-thirds of terrestrial biodiversity”.

The summit aimed to create an alliance between the three regions. It failed. Instead, the Declaration that came out of the three-day-meeting is a wishy-washy commitment to seven “elements” that “form the basis of a roadmap, which can be revised at each stage of the construction of the common framework for cooperation between the three basins”.

Another talk shop, in other words. Aimed at attracting money for carbon credits, but with little or nothing in terms of concrete actions to address the underlying causes of deforestation.

Before the meeting started, 60 Indigenous, environmental, and human rights organisation produced a joint statement criticising the Three Basins initiative for ignoring the expanding extractive industry threats to tropical forests; failing to focus on community rights; and excluding civil society groups in shaping the agenda.

In a press statement, Trésor Nzila, Coordinator of the NGO CAD in the Republic of Congo said,

“Indigenous Peoples and other local communities are bearing the brunt of the negative effects of the large-scale illegal exploitation of natural resources, particularly wood and extractive commodities in the countries of the three basins, whilst strict forest conservation closes off forests to local communities. It is essential to abandon any vision of industrialization or a development model that threatens the very existence of people whose lives depend on forests and their ecosystem.”

Extractive industry threats

New research published by Earth Insight highlights the threats from extractive industries in the three regions. The report titled “Three Basins Threat Report: Fossil Fuel, Mining, and Industrial Expansion Threats to Forests and Communities” shows that:

• Nearly 20 percent of intact tropical forests in the three basins are now in active and potential oil and gas concessions.

• Nearly 25 percent of intact tropical forests in the Amazon and Congo basins are now in active or potential mining concessions.

• In Indonesia, nearly half of all nickel concessions, a major source for the Electric Vehicle industry, overlap with natural forests.

• Over 200 million people, including a significant proportion of Indigenous and local communities, or about 20 percent of the population in the three basin regions, live within oil and gas blocks.

The report argues for a moratorium on the expansion of industrial activities in primary and priority forests.

Here is the joint statement issued before the Summit:

Three Basins Summit Statement

Threats to tropical forests are growing: that is why Indigenous and community rights must be at the centre of the Three Basins initiative

To: Heads of States of the countries of the Three Basins Summit initiative

Solutions to tropical deforestation have to come from within tropical forest countries. That is why we welcome greater south-south cooperation and the gathering of the Three Basins Summit in Brazzaville, from October 26 to 28.

However, we the undersigned Indigenous, environmental, human rights and other frontline organisations are writing to express our concerns over the initiative’s direction of travel, specifically the lack of attention given to impacts of extractives and other harmful industries on rainforests and to the engagement of civil society and rights-holders in the process.

While the stated aim of the summit is to preserve and restore the planet’s three great rainforest basins, new research shows in practice many countries from the three rainforest basins are in fact advancing plans that will do exactly the opposite. For example:

In the Amazon Basin: Existing or planned oil and gas blocks now overlap an estimated 65 million hectares, or 13 percent, of intact tropical forest and more than 31 million hectares of Indigenous Territories home to over 500 indigenous nationalities.

In the Congo Basin: Planned oil and gas blocks overlap with more than 72 million hectares, or 39 percent, of intact tropical forests, which are home to more than 17,000 populated places inclusive of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities.

In Southeast Asia: Oil and gas blocks designated for production or exploration cover more than 34.8 million hectares, or nearly 20%, of intact tropical forests. In Indonesia, more than 99,000 populated places inclusive of a high degree of Indigenous and forest-based people fall within oil and gas blocks.

Meanwhile Indigenous People and environmental defenders are persecuted and killed in ever greater numbers for defending the forest lands the Three Basins Summit is calling to protect. Often, perpetrators use their power and influence on authorities to keep destroying lives and forests to act with impunity. It is also clear that continuing down the path of ever-expanding extractivism will make it impossible to meet global climate and biodiversity targets.

We need a different pathway, one that is founded on a just energy transition, sustainable economies and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to defend and manage territories. The evidence is clear that forests under the custodianship of these groups store more carbon, harbour more biodiversity and benefit more people.

We are deeply concerned, however, that the Three Basins initiative appears to be more preoccupied with carbon markets than with the human rights of Indigenous People and of others on the frontlines of deforestation and forest degradation. Civil society representatives have also regretted their lack of participation in the event. Marginalising these voices will only result in yet more top-down and ineffective interventions that have so often failed people and forests.

As such, we call on the Three Basins governments to commit to the following in its final communiqué and in all subsequent work:

• Scale up rights based legal protection, demarcation and recognition of forest communities’ lands and territories as a prerequisite to more effective forest protection.

• Uphold communities’ right to fully and effectively participate in decision-making on any developments planned in these areas; respecting Indigenous Peoples' right to free, prior and informed consent, as well as securing the protection of those living in voluntary isolation.

• Empower and protect Indigenous Peoples and other frontline environmental and human rights defenders including by enhancing access to justice.

• Halt and reverse loss and degradation of all natural ecosystems from large-scale agriculture, mining, extractives and other industries, such as through a global moratorium on industrial activities in primary forests as well as priority forests.

• Accelerate true low-carbon development in tropical forest countries through a just energy transition, protecting natural forests and the rights and food sovereignty of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.

• Adopt timebound and measurable goals towards these objectives, for transparency and accountability.

In addition, we call on the international community and particularly governments in the global north to:

• Reduce consumption of forest and climate destroying commodities.

• Channel more and better quality investments to forest protection efforts in the three basins including to Indigenous-led funds in these regions.

• Advance a new funding architecture for forests including through a global carbon levy, subsidy redirection, equitable payments for ecosystem services and debt relief, ensuring a far greater share of this funding goes directly to Indigenous Peoples, local communities and grassroots organisations.

• Protect low-income individuals and groups from potential regressive impacts of the global energy transition through social protection measures, grants and tax reforms and ensuring their access to affordable renewable energy.

Signed by:
Aceh Wetland Foundation – Indonesia
Action Communautaire pour l’accompagnement des Peuples Autochtones et Développement Local (ACPADEL) - Cameroon
Actions pour la Promotion et Protection des Peuples et Espèces Menacés (APEM) - DRC
Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) - Uganda
Ajemalebu Self Help (AJESH) - Cameroon
Appui à l’autopromotion et l’insertion des femmes, des jeunes et des désœuvrés (APIFED) - Cameroon
Association Paysanne pour la Réhabilitation et Protection des Pygmées (PREPPYG) - DRC
Association pour la défense et la promotion des peuples autochtones – Republic of Congo
CENTRAL ASHANINKA DEL RIO ENE – Peru
Centre Africain pour le Développement Durable et l'Environnement (CADDE) - Gabon
Centre d’Actions pour le Développement (CAD) - Republic of Congo
Centre D’Appui à la Gestion Durable des Fôrets Tropicales (CAGDFT) - DRC
Centre d'Appui pour le Développement Durable (CADD) - Central African Republic
Centre pour le Développement et l'Environnement (CED) - Cameroon
Coalition des Organisations de la Société Civile pour le Suivi des Réformes et de l Action Publique (CORAP) - DRC
Comptoir Juridique Junior (CJJ) - Republic of Congo
Dynamique des Groupes des Peuples Autochtones (DGPA) – DRC
Dynamique pour le Développement Durable du Massif d'Itombwe - DRC
EcoCiencia- Ecuador EcoDev - Cameroon
EcoNusa Foundation – Indonesia
Feri Irawan, Perkumpulan Hijau - Indonesia
Fondation Camerounaise Terre Vivante (FCTV) - Cameroon
Forêts et Développement Rural (FODER) - Cameroon
Forest Watch - Indonesia
Forum pour la gouvernance et les droits de l'Homme (FGDH) - Republic of Congo
Friends of the Earth – Sri Lanka
GeoFirst Development - DRC
Groupe d’action pour sauver l’homme et son environnement (GASHE) - DRC
JARINGAN ADVOKASI TAMBANG SULAWESI TENGAH - Indonesia
JPIC Kalimantan - Indonesia
Mouvement de Jeunes pour la Protection de l’Environnement (MJPE) - DRC
Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l'Homme (OCDH) - Republic of Congo
Réseau pour la Conservation et la Réhabilitation des Écosystèmes Forestiers (Réseau CREF) - DRC
Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l'Homme (RPDH) - Republic of Congo
Save Our Borneo, Indonesia Tasha Research Institute Africa - Uganda
Travail en Réseau avec les Fédérations des Femmes et Enfants en Détresse - DRC
Trend Asia - Indonesia
WALHI East Nusa Tenggara - Indonesia
WALHI South Sulawesi - Indonesia
Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat – Indonesia
Yihu - Indonesia

Supported by:
Amazon Watch
Amnesty International
Earth Insight
Earthrights International
Environmental Investigation Agency
Global Witness
Green Finance Observatory
Greenpeace Africa
Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Foundation Norway
Rainforest Foundation US
Rainforest Foundation UK
Rainforest Rescue - Switzerland
Rainforest Rescue - Germany
STAND.earth

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