Some of the world's leading conservation groups are violating the rights of indigenous people by backing projects that oust them from their ancestral homes in the name of environmental preservation, a top UN expert said this week.
UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz's latest report documents killings, evictions and lands being used for resource extraction without native consent -- practices that affect millions of indigenous people across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
"Projects supported by major conservation organizations continue to displace local peoples from their ancestral homes," said Tauli-Corpuz, who gave a series of talks on her findings at the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, the globe's largest gathering of conservation leaders.
While she refrained from naming names in her report, she told AFP the groups include the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
"They know who they are," she said in an interview on the sidelines of the IUCN meeting, which has drawn 9,000 heads of states and environmentalists to Hawaii for a 10-day meeting.
World Wildlife Fund Director General Marco Lambertini called the report an "important contribution to advancing good practice on indigenous rights in conservation."
"WWF is committed to working in collaboration with indigenous peoples and local communities for the preservation and sustainable use of the natural resources," he added.
Conservation International's chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann agreed.
Tauli-Corpuz plans to present her report at the UN General Assembly later this month, in the hopes of pressuring governments to cease rights abuses.
In the meantime, she said conservation groups "are not doing enough" to support indigenous rights. "All this talk about conserving nature, sometimes it is just talk," she said.
PHOTO: A Brazilian native from the Guarani Kaiowa ethnic tribe who suffer "killings and violent evictions", according to UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.
CREDIT: AFP.