Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance in ASEAN

The document highlights the critical role of Indigenous Peoples in Southeast Asia as stewards of biodiversity and climate stability, noting that deforestation rates on their lands are half those on other lands. It criticizes the current draft of the ASEAN declaration on environmental rights for omitting Indigenous Peoples, which the authors argue leads to human rights violations, land dispossession, and the marginalization of traditional ecological knowledge. The brief provides specific recommendations for the declaration, including the recognition of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the protection of Indigenous Environmental Human Rights Defenders.

• Indigenous Peoples in Southeast Asia are highly effective environmental stewards; deforestation rates on their lands are half those found on other lands, and they manage over 24 percent of aboveground carbon stored in tropical forests.
• The current draft of the ASEAN declaration on environmental rights fails to recognize Indigenous Peoples and their rights, which may undermine the effectiveness of regional environmental governance given that approximately 100 million people in the region identify as Indigenous.
• Many ASEAN Member States lack comprehensive legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples, with only the Philippines and Malaysia (specifically Sabah and Sarawak) recognizing them as "Indigenous" in their constitutions.
• The lack of legal recognition has led to human rights violations and the dispossession of lands through state-created protected areas and commercial projects, such as a 100-year carbon trading deal in Sabah, Malaysia, signed without Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
• Indigenous Environmental Human Rights Defenders face severe violence; between 2012 and 2023, 468 defenders were murdered in Asia, with the highest numbers in the Philippines (298), Indonesia (20), and Thailand (13).
• Traditional ecological knowledge is often marginalized or misrepresented in Southeast Asia; for example, rotational farming is frequently misunderstood as harmful and criminalized in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

APA

Tran, M., Kim, D., Wongnithisathaporn, P., Zenobi, S., Salamanca, A., & Mandal, S. (2025). Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance in ASEAN. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/186705/indigenous-peoples-rights-environmental-governance.pdf

Chicago

Tran, Minh, Dayoon Kim, Pirawan Wongnithisathaporn, Stefano Zenobi, Albert Salamanca, and Sushmita Mandal. Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance in ASEAN. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2025. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/186705/indigenous-peoples-rights-environmental-governance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tran |first1=Minh |last2=Kim |first2=Dayoon |last3=Wongnithisathaporn |first3=Pirawan |last4=Zenobi |first4=Stefano |last5=Salamanca |first5=Albert |last6=Mandal |first6=Sushmita |title=Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance in ASEAN |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=January 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/186705/indigenous-peoples-rights-environmental-governance.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tran2025advancing, author = {Tran, Minh and Kim, Dayoon and Wongnithisathaporn, Pirawan and Zenobi, Stefano and Salamanca, Albert and Mandal, Sushmita}, title = {{Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance in ASEAN}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/186705/indigenous-peoples-rights-environmental-governance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }