3 June 2013, Bonn, Germany

On behalf of International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), we would like to express the following issues and concerns:

1. All climate change adaptation and mitigation policies, strategies, actions and programmes must respect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to forests, land, territories and resources in line with the international standards and instruments such as UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ILO Convention 169.
2. Full and effective participation of indigenous peoples must be ensured in all REDD+ phases, governance systems and institutional arrangements, as provided in the Cancun Agreement and should be subject to our Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
3. The methodological guidance on non carbon benefits and Safeguard Information Systems (SIS) must respect, recognize and promote the community based monitoring and information systems, including traditional knowledge, customary laws, forest management systems and practices of indigenous peoples. Technical assistance and capacity building must be prioritized and supported.
4. The state must demonstrate their obligation on effective and timely reporting on non-carbon benefits/multiple functions of forest including socio-cultural, economic, environmental and spiritual values.
5. Independent recourse or complain mechanisms must be available for indigenous peoples at all levels to deal with grievances and conflict resolution. The information system should provide steps that will be taken to set up such mechanisms with the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples.
6. Indigenous peoples’ traditional forest conservation and management practices such as shifting cultivation, pastoralism among others have contributed both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. They are not drivers of deforestation.