The Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE) with technical support from Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) is implementing the project, “Building a Resilient Churia Region in Nepal (BRCRN)” in 26 river systems of 11 districts in Provice-1, Madhesh Province and Bagmati Province of Nepal. This project is the first Green Climate Fund (GCF) aided project in Nepal. Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) in collaboration with FAO is undertaking awareness raising and capacity building activities for indigenous peoples of the project area.  For that, NEFIN organized a training- workshop titled, “Institutional Capacity Strengthening of Indigenous Peoples Organizations within BRCRN Project Area” in Dharan from June1-2 2022. 

The main objective of the event was to aware indigenous peoples about climate change, indigenous peoples’ rights and their contribution to climate action.  It thereby aims to enhance resilience of communities and ecosystems, and secure the rights of indigenous peoples BRCRN. 

A total of 22 participants including 12 male and 10 female representing Indigenous Peoples Organization (IPOs) from 19 municipalities of Ilam, Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari and Udayapur attended the event. Ms Laharu Maya Jeemi the vice-chairperson of federal secretariat of NEFIN, chairpersons of NEFIN’ District Coordination Councils (DCCs) of the project area,  Mr. Sushil Bhandari representing BRCRN Provincial Project Management Unit (PPMU) Itahari and Mr. Narayan Shrestha the Indigenous Peoples Expert of BRCRN-FAO joined participants in discussions. Indigenous peoples’ experts and resource persons made presentations on various tittles related to climate change, indigenous peoples’ world views, collective rights, their knowledge and science, among other issues, concerning to project interventions the BRCRN in particular. 

The key recommendation of the participant was to ensure collective and institutional representation of indigenous people through involvement of NEFIN in all activities and at all levels of decision making mechanisms of the project. Participants also demanded indigenous peoples’ participation with gender balance including youth and elders in culturally appropriate manner. 

Furthermore, the workshop recommended that the project must respect distinct worldviews, lifeways, values and science in designing and implementation of the project activities. The workshop also suggest that climate actions, natural resource management, income generation and any activities in indigenous peoples land and territory should be led and owned by indigenous peoples of the territory.