Press Release
Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), University of Oxford , November 2004

The Dana Declaration Promotes the Participation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples at the 3 rd World Conservation Congress (IUCN), Bangkok , November 2004

Dr. Dawn Chatty is, this week, representing the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford , in its ongoing effort to promote the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation ( Dana , Jordan , 2002) at the 3 rd World Conservation Congress (IUCN) in Bangkok , Thailand .

The Dana Declaration is the outcome of an Oxford-led initiative to increase collaboration between professionals in the social and natural sciences as well as between conservation practitioners, and policy makers. The Declaration calls for a new approach to mobile indigenous peoples and conservation based upon a partnership between the two groups who are, in fact, unrecognized allies. Mobile indigenous peoples have identified common concerns and have pointed to the unique needs and perspectives of their ways of life, arguing that mobility is a management strategy for sustainable land use and conservation, and a distinct source of cultural identity.

For more information about the Dana Declaration and the World Conservation Congress please visit the following website: www.danadeclaration.org

The resolution Mobile Indigenous Peoples and Conservation has been submitted to the World Conservation Congress for ratification - endorsing the Dana Declaration and highlighting the value of the recently created World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP). It seeks to build on progress made at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa in September 2003 and at the meeting of the Convention of Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur in February 2004 where a political commitment was made to “ to ensure necessary participation and equitable sharing of the benefits of protected areas, particularly with indigenous and mobile peoples , as well as local communities.”

The Standing Committee of the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation is sponsoring the participation of mobile indigenous peoples representatives from Jordan , Syria , Namibia , Tanzania , and Iran at the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok .

Dr. Chatty will help facilitate a key forum for these representatives at the Indigenous Peoples' Preparatory Meeting November 16 th -17 th , ahead of the main World Conservation Forum. These representatives of mobile indigenous peoples will also participate in and make presentations at other workshops during the Congress.

Other supporting groups including: Ad Hoc Working Group of Indigenous Peoples (AHWG), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation (AIPP), Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA) of the IUCN, and the World Alliance for Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP).

For further details contact Dr. Dawn Chatty, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford , at dawn.chatty@qeh.ox.ac.uk

The term mobile peoples (i.e., transhumant and “nomadic” pastoralists, hunter-gatherer, shifting agriculturalists and other peoples with dynamic regular changing patterns of land use) encompasses a subset of indigenous peoples whose livelihoods depend on extensive common property use of natural resources and whose mobility is both a management strategy for dealing with sustainable use and conservation and a distinctive source of cultural identity .

(17 November 2004 by Dr Dawn Chatty)