Local communities

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the so-called Quilombos of Brazil, the descendants of African slaves live as non- indigenous local communities with traditional farming methods

The term local communities is used for small, cohesive population groups who, with the help of traditional economic methods - i.e. without the use of industrial technologies - lead a potentially demand-oriented way of life ( subsistence economy ). These can be farmers , fishermen , hunters and gatherers , rural communities or groups of nomads , for example . Until the 1980s, such groups were still grouped under the term "primitive peoples" , which can still be found in popular publications. However, the term was banned from science as derogatory and misleading (mostly in the sense of "cultured peoples"). In the English-speaking world, however, there is the term ecosystem people , which stands for people who live from one or a few neighboring ecosystems . In this sense, the members of local communities are also “ecosystem people”.

In the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ( UNCED ), the synonymous term “indigenous and local communities with traditional economies” is used.

Definition

The term "local community" (English. Local Communities ) has been at the international level for the first time in 1995 by the American anthropologist and biologist Darrell Addison Posey proposed. It is now also used as an alternative for " indigenous communities " - but there are three main differences:

  1. Indigenous people are the descendants of the original autochthonous population ("indigenous, indigenous"). Even today they often feel a spiritual bond with their living space, to which they often assert land rights claims. The term “indigenous” always has a political meaning that is linked to demands for self-determination and participation that are expressed by those concerned themselves. The term local communities , on the other hand, also includes those non-indigenous sections of the population who were expelled to new residential areas during colonization and who have no political self-image of their own, for example in Brazil the descendants of black slaves ( quilombolas ) or the rubber tappers.
  2. The term local community is deliberately aimed at only fractions of a people and not at whole ethnic groups (like the abandoned term "primitive peoples", which is also incorrect in this sense). Indigenous ethnic groups are now less homogeneous than ever and often only a small part of their members go about their traditional life in local villages.
  3. In contrast to the local communities, “ ecosystem people ” are not only used to describe indigenous or ethnically distinct village communities, but also large parts of the population in many so-called developing countries that traditionally operate in a subsistence-oriented manner.
  4. While local communities must be potential self-sufficiency by definition , the (today's) way of life or economy is not a criterion for indigenous peoples.

African states in particular prefer the term local instead of indigenous , as the autochthonous (original) population is the majority in almost all of Africa.

In the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ( UNCED ), the description "indigenous and local communities with traditional economic forms" has been used since 1993 for a better understanding.

Traditional subsistence farming and biodiversity

Local communities operate traditional forms of economy , they grow crops or raise livestock, often supplemented by hunting and fishing . They use little domesticated , traditional plant and animal species as food, medicines, fuels and materials. As a rule, neither modern machines nor fertilizers are used. The products are usually only marketed to a very limited extent, since they are primarily used for their own maintenance ( subsistence farming ). This leads to the fact that biological diversity is preserved and increased.

If the natural environment of these groups is impaired too much, not only is biodiversity lost, but also an essential part of cultural cohesion. Such impairments occur primarily through the state-permitted overexploitation of natural resources by national or multinational corporations or through the turning away of the locals from subsistence farming, for example through the introduction of modern agricultural methods and overproduction to participate in the market economy.

Lack of legal certainty

Members of local communities often have a wealth of traditional knowledge about native plants and animals. As a result of economic globalization , these people are increasingly becoming the target of research projects in industrialized nations, for example in the search for new medicines or food crops. Unfortunately, the authors are again and again massively defrauded or have no use at all from the patented "discoveries" of the western world.

Human rights organizations and the international community are therefore endeavoring to create a legal framework to counteract this grievance. To date, there is no international legal certainty for local communities in this regard.

Above all, the following three central rights are required:

  • unrestricted control over traditional means of production (e.g. seeds)
  • Right to an adequate share in the profit that arises from traditional knowledge
  • long-term legal certainty on the developed or otherwise used land

The current development, however, gives rise to fears that legal requirements will be adopted too late or that they will only be insufficiently enforced on site.

At the national level, too, only a few countries have made legal progress for local communities. In particular, Brazil should be mentioned here, where the legally binding decree for “Traditional Peoples and Communities” has existed since 2007 . The social scientist Dieter Gawora from the University of Kassel , in an exchange with scientists from other countries, advocates establishing this Brazilian term and its concrete definition for local communities on an international level in order to accelerate the process of finding the law.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Gawora, Maria Helena de Souza Ide, Romulo Soares Barbosa (ed.), Mirja Annawald (transl.): Traditional peoples and communities in Brazil. Latin America Documentation Center. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, pp. 19-20.
  2. ^ Dieter Gawora: Research group on traditional peoples and communities . Website of the University of Kassel, Faculty 05 Social Sciences. Retrieved June 15, 2013.