LE DROIT À S’ORGANISER ET LES DROITS CULTURELS ESSENTIELS À LA GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DES FORÊTS

The document emphasizes that community forest management (GCF) cannot exist without organized communities and the protection of their cultural and spiritual ties to their territories. It highlights the right of association as a fundamental human right, supported by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN declarations on indigenous peoples and peasants. The text argues that cultural rights—including traditional knowledge, language, and spirituality—are inextricably linked to land tenure; therefore, protecting the territory is the primary means of safeguarding these cultural rights. It calls for the integration of biocultural heritage into global biodiversity frameworks to combat the collapse of biodiversity and the loss of traditional knowledge.

• Community organization is a prerequisite for community forest management (GCF) because the forest is a collective space and the practice requires an organized community to succeed; without it, there are no mechanisms for collective well-being or mobilization for improved living conditions.
• The right to form an organization, whether as a legal entity or a de facto group, is a fundamental human right supported by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Legal status for community organizations offers advantages such as accessing funds and legal certificates, but can impose burdens like periodic compliance requirements or the imposition of dominant societal organizational forms that ignore traditional structures.
• Cultural and spiritual rights—including traditional knowledge, language, and the spiritual link to the land—are among the least defined and least protected rights in international agreements, yet they are essential for the construction of collective knowledge and the transmission of heritage.
• There is an inseparable link between cultural rights and territory; protecting traditional knowledge and spiritual practices requires the protection of the physical territories and biological diversity where these practices occur.
• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), specifically articles 8j and 10c, provides a basis for protecting the traditional knowledge and customary use of biological resources of indigenous and local communities.
• Integrating biocultural heritage into global biodiversity frameworks (such as the post-2020 framework) is necessary to address the drivers of biodiversity loss and the simultaneous disappearance of traditional languages and knowledge.

APA

Rojas, I. (2020). LE DROIT À S’ORGANISER ET LES DROITS CULTURELS ESSENTIELS À LA GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DES FORÊTS. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Le-droit-a-s-organiser-et-les-droits-culturels-essentiels-a-la-gestion-communautaire-des-forets_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf

Chicago

Rojas, Isaac. LE DROIT À S’ORGANISER ET LES DROITS CULTURELS ESSENTIELS À LA GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DES FORÊTS. Friends of the Earth International, 2020. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Le-droit-a-s-organiser-et-les-droits-culturels-essentiels-a-la-gestion-communautaire-des-forets_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rojas |first1=Isaac |title=LE DROIT À S’ORGANISER ET LES DROITS CULTURELS ESSENTIELS À LA GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DES FORÊTS |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=December 2020 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Le-droit-a-s-organiser-et-les-droits-culturels-essentiels-a-la-gestion-communautaire-des-forets_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rojas2020droit, author = {Rojas, Isaac}, title = {{LE DROIT À S’ORGANISER ET LES DROITS CULTURELS ESSENTIELS À LA GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DES FORÊTS}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2020}, month = dec, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Le-droit-a-s-organiser-et-les-droits-culturels-essentiels-a-la-gestion-communautaire-des-forets_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }