Abstract ID: 3.13216 | Accepted as Poster | Talk/Oral | TBA | TBA

Indigenous peoples are globally recognised as agents of sustainability, as their unique knowledge, lifestyles, and skills provide practical solutions to many environmental issues faced worldwide. Several international agreements including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the importance of Indigenous peoples’ rights and emphasise the importance of Indigenous peoples’ participation as key to achieving the SDGs’ ambitions. While many countries worldwide have endorsed Indigenous rights and created policies to support them, challenges in implementation persist globally. Similarly, enabling Indigenous rights in co-management or participatory approaches in conservation efforts related to forest/environmental management and climate change adaptation/mitigation also shows nominal improvement. Studies equate the success of such a co-management / participatory programme with the rights that are enabled to the Indigenous peoples and the power that is shared with them in terms of decision-making. In this context, the present study analyses the substantive and enabling rights of the Kurichya community in the Kannavam protected forest of the Western Ghats, India, in relation to forest management policies and the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The study reveals the impartial and incomplete implementation of the FRA in the settlements, which in turn affects important substantive rights such as land rights and access rights. Although Indigenous people were involved in forest management, absolute decision-making authority and power-sharing were found to be an issue in the settlements, especially where the forest management programme did not produce the desired results. Our study therefore highlights the importance of ensuring the fundamental rights and active participation of indigenous communities in empowering indigenous communities and achieving the goals of participatory forest management and policies.