A presentation that outlines the work undertaken during the 1994-96 period to try and put indigenous business and economic development on the international development agenda. In the early 1990s Indigenous issues were largely framed in terms of human rights and culture. This report summarizes some of the early work to move the donor and development community to also incorporate business and economic development and deal more effectively with economic marginalization.

1. Inter-Indigenous Partnerships - Partnership in Action
Speaking notes for a Presentation to the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Seminar on
Indigenous Production and Trade in Copenhagen, Denmark, January 15-17, 1996
by
Wayne Dunn, Executive Director Samuel Mercado, President & CEO
Apikan Indigenous Network Corporation for Indigenous Economic Development
Canada Nicaragua
Opening - Wayne Dunn
Thank you. First, I want to introduce my colleague and friend, Samuel Mercado. Our
presentation deals with inter-Indigenous partnerships, and we are presenting as partners. Samuel
is a Miskito Indian from Nicaragua who has long been a leader in his peoples struggle for
development, through wars, oppression and now as the President and CEO of CIDEsa, the
Corporation for Indigenous Economic Development in the Atlantic region of Nicaragua.
I want to congratulate the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Countries for
taking the lead and organizing this Seminar on Indigenous Production and Trade, and to thank
them for the opportunity to be here speaking with you. It is an honour to be speaking in this
forum and to have the opportunity to spend time listening to and visiting with all of you. I have
already learned so much from the presentations and the time spent with you. This is a truly
historic seminar. We are witnessing a paradigm shift as Indigenous peoples throughout the
world begin to increase their focus on issues of trade, production and economic development.
“We are tired of companies coming in and using our resources and people -
taking and leaving nothing behind, destroying our communities and our lands.
We fought a war to hang to our communities and our way of life. Now we face
another challenge - Economic Colonization. Now, if we don’t organize and
train ourselves and create our own business structures we will be wiped out. We
are looking to other Indigenous partners to work with, so we can share our
opportunities, capacities and resources.”
Brooklyn Rivera
Miskito Indian Leader - Nicaragua
Winnipeg Workshop on Indigenous Partnerships
Sept.-23-95
Those words, spoken by Brooklyn at an international workshop on Indigenous
partnerships last September, are about inter-Indigenous partnerships - about partnership in action.
We are in the United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and the
Theme of the Decade is Partnership in Action. It is up to us, as Indigenous peoples, to make that
theme happen.
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Structure of Presentation
First, a few words on the structure of our presentation here today. I will briefly discuss
the concept of inter-Indigenous partnerships and some of the work that has been happening to
develop and support this process, then I will give a couple quick examples of some exciting and
successful Indigenous businesses from Canada. I will also provide some comments on the
proper range of Indigenous economic activities and who is responsible for deciding on that range.
Following that, Samuel will give a quick history of the Miskito in Nicaragua, their
struggles and opportunities leading to the formation of their business vehicle, CIDEsa. Then he
will describe an example of an inter-Indigenous partnership that is truly breaking new ground in
Indigenous development - the business partnerships the Miskito of Nicaragua are negotiating
with other Indigenous peoples as they take control of their development process.
Following this we have some recommendations which will challenge the international
community to provide support to Indigenous trade, production and economic development, and
to other bottoms-up Indigenous development initiatives.
Who is Apikan and what do they do
Apikan is a small organization, founded by Simon Brascoupé, an Algonquin/Mohawk
Indian from Canada. The organization is based in Ottawa and works to facilitate partnerships
and linkages amongst Indigenous peoples where they can share experience, strengths, resources,
capacities and opportunities as they see fit. The partnerships Samuel will be describing later,
where the Miskito are working with Indigenous businesses from Canada on joint ventures are an
example of this type of partnership. We are also working to encourage the international
community and nation states to support Indigenous peoples in their development priorities,
especially as they relate to inter-Indigenous partnerships and economic development.
Over the past two years our work has included organizing indigenous trade and
partnership missions, conferences, seminars and workshops on Indigenous trade and
development, publishing reports and lobbying on the issue, speaking at events such as this and
facilitating actual partnerships such as the ones Samuel will describe later.
A little over a year ago we organized a scoping mission to Central America to gauge
grassroots interest in inter-Indigenous partnerships with a focus on trade and income generation
and to identify partnership opportunities. To our knowledge this was the first ever mission of its
type, and resulted in the publication of a report outlining nearly fifty such partnership
opportunities.
What are Inter-Indigenous Partnerships?
Inter-Indigenous partnerships are partnerships between Indigenous peoples where they
share experiences, strengths, capacities, resources and opportunities in mutually beneficial ways.
These partnerships can take the form of business partnerships such as Samuel will describe later,
whereby the Miskito peoples had access to business opportunities in the resource sector, and
were looking for a partner who had financial and technical capacity and who shared some of their
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values in relation to development, environment and the value of the land. They can also take
many other forms, such as sharing education and training experiences and opportunities, resource
management experiences and needs, etc.
Indigenous peoples have many strengths and capacities. Look around this room at all the
strengths and experiences we have here. Inter-Indigenous partnerships are about Indigenous
peoples sharing their strengths, capacities, resources and opportunities in sustainable ways and
mutually beneficial ways. It is a dynamic process that is driven by Indigenous peoples,
according to their priorities and objectives. Not by international organizations or experts setting
down ‘correct parameters for development’.
Over the past 18 months I have met with Indigenous peoples at the community level in
many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. I have also had the opportunity to meet
with many others at meetings and conferences such as this. By far the top priority has been
income generation and dealing with economic marginalization. My friend Jose Oritz from Costa
Rica said it well yesterday when he said “A culture that cannot be financially self sufficient will
die.” That, my friends is the sad reality. Human rights are important, but you cannot eat them.
And, I seriously question the long term sustainability of human rights by a people who continue
to be so severely marginalized economically.
Bio-diversity is important, but, the truth is, often our people are forced to destroy the
environment and bio-diversity simply to survive. Without sustainable income generating
options, people are forced to adopt unsustainable practices simply to survive. For instance, what
of the Mayan people in Guatemala who are forced from their land and must clear new forests to
have land to plant so they can avoid starvation? As my friend Sandy Davis noted yesterday,
poverty is severe in Indigenous communities and hunger is becoming an issue. Forced to choose
between survival for themselves and their family and destroying more forest, people destroy the
forest. And who can blame them. Who among us would not do the same thing, faced with that
choice? Part of the solution my friends is to support and encourage sustainable income
generating practices and ways to deal with economic marginalization, not to simply oppose and
condemn unsustainable practices.
Recently I had the honour of making a presentation to the International Conference on
Indigenous Human Rights in Arequipa, Peru. My presentation focused on business, economic
development and human rights. Recognizing that business and economic development have,
historically, had a very damaging impact on Indigenous peoples, I argued that this does not have
to be the case, that there are alternative approaches and success stories where business and
economic development have had very positive impacts on Indigenous peoples. I cited a number
of examples from Canada where Indigenous peoples, either through wholly owned businesses, or
through joint ventures with non-Indigenous partners, have made business work for them and their
people.
I was somewhat nervous making this presentation, because for so long Indigenous issues
have been presented on the international scene in terms of culture, human rights, bio-diversity
and environment. Business has been very controversial to say the least. None the less, I went
ahead with my presentation. The response was overwhelming. Over the next two days nearly
everyone at the conference, the majority of the attendees were from the community level,
approached me and wanted to discuss their economic development priorities and strategies and
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opportunities for collaboration. Economic development, trade and production was, for a majority
of them, their top priority.
Another example of the priority community level people place on this issue also
happened in Peru. I was with the Executive of the World Council of Indigenous People (WCIP)
for an Executive Meeting in Chivay, Peru. We met with the Indigenous leader of the Provincial
Legislature and their top priority was economic development and income generation. Later that
day, on a tour of the area, the first editorial comment by our local Indigenous guide concerned
the need for local Indigenous people to develop their economic options. Similar examples
happen continuously.
People have also expressed much frustration at the lack of international support for their
economic priorities. David Magaña, a Mayan leader from western Belize has been trying for
some time to secure some agricultural land to facilitate some of his people moving from an urban
environment and becoming self-sufficient in terms of food production. He has had extreme
difficulty gathering support for his peoples priority. He told me that, “if I had been trying to get
land for baboons to live on I would have been overwhelmed with support. But, for people,
nothing. It is easier to get land for baboons to live on than it is to get land for poor Indigenous
people to live on.”
Repeatedly, the message from the Indigenous communities has been strong interest in
projects and initiatives that focus on income generation in areas they determine are important,
not in areas that the international community, or international experts determine are ‘appropriate’
for Indigenous economic activity.
Canadian Indigenous Businesses.
We will get back to the issue of proper areas for Indigenous economic devilment later,
but for now I want to briefly describe some success stories of Indigenous businesses in Canada
and how other Indigenous peoples are interested in sharing this experience. I am proud to say
that Canada leads the world in Indigenous business development. Indigenous peoples and
organizations in Canada have businesses that operate in every sector of the Canadian economy.
From resource industries where we have companies in mining, forestry, fishing, oil an gas, and
all other sectors to transportation with airlines, ocean going shipping and trucking to
communications to tourism to legal, financial - including banking institutions and international
investment - and other services to high tech industries, there is even a Canadian Indigenous
product that has been used for testing on the space shuttle, to environmental services, to
management. Indigenous businesses are represented successfully in literally every sector of the
Canadian economy. As well, Indigenous peoples control and operate their own governments,
schools, municipal services, social service agencies, legal services, and so on.
In Canada, we even have a specialized department within the government of Canada,
Aboriginal Business Canada, which has offices throughout the country and is mandated to
support and encourage the development of Indigenous businesses. This department and its
officers have provided a valuable service, providing capital, financial and networking support to
Canadian Indigenous businesses. We also have a professional association of Native economic
development officers, CANDO, which provides support and training for Native economic
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development professionals. I will be putting information on CANDO on the table at the back of
the room later.
One of my favourite examples of a successful Indigenous business is Kitsaki
Development Corporation, which is wholly owned by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in north-
central Canada. Kitsaki, or KDC as it is known locally, began about ten years ago when it
partnered with the largest bulk transportation company in North America, Trimac, to provide
transportation services to the mining industry. KDC, as a local supplier, had preferential access
to contract opportunities, an abundance of local ‘on the ground’ information, and access to a
large labour pool. Trimac, had the technical and financial capacity to provide specialized
transportation services. By pooling their strengths , they formed a joint venture, Northern
Resource Trucking (NRT), which today is by far the largest bulk transportation company in an
area about twice the size of Denmark. Annual revenues for NRT are in the CAD$20-25 million
range. In addition, NRT has supported dozens of local Indigenous entrepreneurs to purchase
their own trucks and become lease operators with the parent operation.
Building on the success of NRT and its profit driven approach to business (according to
Chief Harry Cook, “If we aren’t profitable, we cannot sustainably provide employment, training
and other benefits to our people”) KDC now operates a stable of about 13 companies with annual
revenues exceeding CAD$30 million. They are the major player in the local economy and have
businesses in most sectors such as tourism, catering, agriculture, marketing, real estate,
insurance, processing, and so on. These businesses provide employment and business
opportunities for many band members and profits are used for various purposes, including
activities such as supporting the development of school curriculum materials based on the
legends, stories and activities of the local Cree culture.
The success of KDC has created a lot of pride in Band members and has had positive
impacts on the social, political, cultural and economic marginalization of Band members. While
it certainly hasn’t solved all the problems, KDC’s success has made a difference. Can you
imagine the pride of individual Band members, knowing that they own and operate one of the
most successful and profitable businesses in the region?
Another example, which I’m certain Samuel will talk more about, is the Meadow Lake
Tribal Corporation (MLTC). In September Apikan coordinated an Indigenous partnership
mission where Indigenous economic leaders from Latin America visited a number of Indigenous
business and economic operations in Canada, then attended a national Indigenous economic
development conference sponsored by CANDO. MLTC has a very profitable and successful
forestry operation. As Samuel will describe, they have successfully brought together industrial
interests, traditional resource users, communities and other interests. With a bottoms up
approach to resource management and harvest planning, they have developed a very profitable,
multi-million dollar group of businesses. But, when we visited Meadow Lake, as Samuel and
Jorge Valiente, President of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) will confirm, the
first place they took us to was their Health Centre.
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Healthy People Make Healthy Decisions is the motto of MLTC and its operations. Their
businesses and the profits they generate are tools, used for a larger purpose - promoting and
sustaining the health and well being of their Band membership.
There are plenty of other examples of successful Indigenous businesses in Canada. A
couple that come to mind are First Air, an Inuit owned airline. Last January, I was part of a
business delegation accompanying Canadian Prime Minister Chretien to South America, and we
traveled on a jet chartered from First Air. Unaaq, another Inuit company that is present here
today has developed successful fishing and consulting operations, selling goods and services
around the world. The Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation recently turned over about CAD$40
million in profits to be used for the benefit of the Inuvialuit.
Canadian Indigenous peoples are successfully active in many other areas as well. For
instance, Winnipeg based Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources, (CIER) is furthering
the development of Indigenous environmental resource capacity and is looking at business and
training opportunities related to this development.
As I mentioned before, these businesses are not always successful, nor do they have
universally positive impacts. Development to be sustainable and productive, must have a
balance. Too much of a focus on economic and business development alone, without a focus on
social, cultural, spiritual and community development is not healthy or sustainable. But,
similarly, a singular focus on social, cultural, spiritual and community development, without
corresponding economic development is also prone to problems. To be sustainable,
development should aim to produce and support healthy people and families who have healthy
economic options and opportunities.
I could go on, but I think you get the message - Indigenous people can be successful and
benefit from business. These successes were not developed around ‘appropriate’ areas for
Indigenous economic development, but on what opportunities are available and what the people
themselves decide are the areas they wish to focus on. And, the profits and benefits from these
businesses can be used to support the culture, health and well being of Indigenous peoples.
Canadian Indigenous Business and Inter-Indigenous Partnerships
The successes of Canadian Indigenous businesses, and how they have been able to
combine business and economic development success with social and cultural objectives
provides a model that other Indigenous peoples are looking at with increasing interest. This
‘development technology’ and business capacity of Canadian Indigenous business can be
partnered with the access to resources and opportunities available to other Indigenous peoples.
These types of inter-Indigenous partnerships provide an opportunity to utilize the experience and
capacity of Canadian Indigenous businesses to work with Indigenous counterparts in other areas
in mutually beneficial ways. As Samuel will describe later, this can create some exciting and
innovative opportunities. These types of inter-Indigenous partnerships offer mutually beneficial,
and profitable development opportunities for Indigenous peoples.
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As I stated earlier, this sharing of resources, capacities and opportunities does not need
to be limited to the financial and business realm. How we negotiate, how we organize, how we
train our people, how we support our cultures, all these skills and experiences are valuable, and
can serve as the basis for inter-Indigenous partnerships.
Working together, sharing our experiences, strengths, resources and opportunities in
mutually beneficial and supporting ways is what Inter-Indigenous partnerships is all about. This
is true Partnership in Action.
“Appropriate” Areas for Indigenous trade and production
While I’m on the subject of Indigenous economic activities, let us think for a moment
about who should decide what are ‘appropriate’ areas for this activity. Should individuals and
‘experts’, sitting at wooden desks, in petroleum heated offices, writing on wood fiber paper with
plastic pens, driving or riding to work in metal and plastic, petroleum powered vehicles and
flying around the world in metal and plastic petroleum powered aircraft, tell Indigenous peoples
“you shouldn’t focus on resource industries for your development’? Should they? I think not.
I want to tell you about a small project of a Kayapo community in Brazil. The people
have, with assistance from an ‘environmental’ NGO, been operating a small scale, eco-tourism
operation to try and meet some of their income needs. Needing more income to survive, and
wanting to expand their economic options, they decided to explore small scale, sustainable
forestry as another supplementary income source. Following several years of careful
consideration, involving many community meetings and much soul searching, they decided to
develop very conservative model approach to sustainable forestry. Not only were they going to
select harvest, they would only do so one species at a time. This meant they might harvest some
mature Mahogany from an area of their land one year, and then return to that area several years
later to harvest another species and so on. With perhaps up to fifty years going by before they
returned to harvest Mahogany again.
Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t reasonable enough for the NGO
that was supporting their eco-tourism efforts. Somewhere, in a petroleum heated office, likely at
a wooden desk and after studying many reports written on wood fiber paper, a decision was made
that if the Kayapo engaged in forest harvesting, even with this ultra conservative approach, they
could no longer expect support for their eco-tourism efforts. For me, that is totally
unacceptable. Indigenous peoples have demonstrated for centuries their ability to protect the
environment and biodiversity. Why would we no longer trust them to do so?
Who should tell the MLTC that they are wrong to be in the forestry business and
using the proceeds to support and sustain the health of their people? Who should tell Chief Cook
in La Ronge that KDC is wrong to work with the mining industry and use the profits from that to
develop curriculum for Indigenous schools? Who should tell the Inuvialuit that they shouldn’t
have access to the $40 million for the benefit of their people? Who should decide if the Kayapo
should undertake small scale sustainable forestry? I’ll tell you who, the people themselves.
They are the ones who have the most to lose or gain from those decisions and it should be their
decision.
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Indigenous peoples need to be empowered to establish their own development priorities
and objectives, and be supported in developing the capacity to implement those priorities in a
sustainable manner. It is not for nation states, donor countries, International or multi lateral
organizations to decide what is the ‘politically correct’ form of development for Indigenous
peoples. It is their role to help ensure that Indigenous peoples have the capacity to make
informed development decisions, not to dictate what those decisions should be.
Surely the inherent right to self determination for Indigenous peoples includes the right
to decide on what type of economic activity is appropriate.
Well, that pretty much concludes my part of the presentation. I will now turn the podium
over to my friend and colleague, Samuel Mercado who will share with you some information
about the Miskito peoples and an exciting inter-Indigenous partnership they are developing.
Samuel Mercado
[Note: The original delivery was in Spanish - the following is an approximate translation of the
spoken remarks.]
Thank you Wayne and thank you to the Nordic Council of Ministers for the opportunity
to be here today. This is an exciting and historic gathering and it is an honour to be here sharing
with you some of the history, the struggle and the hope of the Miskito nation.
History of Miskito people and the Autonomous Atlantic Region
The Miskito people live on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras in Central
America. In Nicaragua our numbers are about 150,000. Also, many Miskito people live in North
America and Europe, for economic reasons. Most of what I say today will be about those that
live in Nicaragua. For centuries we have been living from our lands and managing our
resources. We still have one of the most resource rich areas in Central America. Our region is
rich in forests, fish, minerals like gold, oil and gas, we have land for agriculture and
manufacturing and lots of opportunity to develop eco-tourism.
In the 1980’s we had to struggle politically and militarily to hold on to our lands and our
way of life. I have been active in the Miskito leadership throughout that time and I’m still active
today. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but we had some difficult struggles. We were
caught between the right and the left and had to do many things to survive. But, we survived
and, as part of the peace process to end the civil war in Nicaragua, the Central government
recognized the Autonomous Atlantic region of Nicaragua.
This Autonomous region is largely populated by Indigenous peoples of Miskito, Sumo
and Rama descent. It is divided into north and south regions and each region has its own
autonomous government.
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Post Civil War Developments
Following the civil war, many Miskito people who had been living as refugees in
Honduras and elsewhere, moved back to Nicaragua. But, the towns and villages and
infrastructure they had left behind was destroyed by the war. Plenty Canada was one of the first
NGOs to come into the area and help the people. I was, and still am, the Central American
development officer for Plenty Canada. After providing food and emergency aid, Plenty assisted
with the formation of a Nicaraguan Indigenous NGO, Pana Pana. Pana Pana is a Miskito word
that means I help you - you help me.
From the start, Pana Pana was built like a business. When it started there were a lot of
NGOs with a lot of money, going to the communities and giving grants for projects and to do
things. Pana Pana said to the people, soon the money and these NGOs will be gone. When we
help you it is with a loan. That is the only way we can survive in the long term. If we give you
rice to plant, we want it paid back when you harvest, with interest. We helped people to build
homes and boats on the same basis. Many people didn’t like that to start with, but Pana Pana got
established in some communities. Pana Pana is now strong in many communities in the region.
Struggle to Prevent Foreign Exploitation of Resources
Like I said before, the Atlantic region is very rich in resources. We have gold and other
minerals, the largest forests in Central America, fisheries, people say there is oil and gas on our
lands, we have land for agriculture and tourism. Many people and large companies have looked
at our resources and wanted them. Even though we have our Autonomous regions, the Central
government has often tried to grant foreign companies concessions to exploit our resources. But,
we have fought a war to hang on to our resources, and we were not going to let a foreign
company take them and us not get any benefits.
Formation of CIDEsa
Pana Pana was working, but we knew we needed something else if we were going to
hang on to our resources and develop them in ways that were sustainable and provided benefits
to our people. We knew we needed to make a business. The Miskito leadership met with the
communities and we formed CIDEsa, the Corporation for Indigenous Economic Development.
The Miskito in Honduras support us too and want us to work with them. CIDEsa and its
objectives are fully supported by the Indigenous leadership and by the Regional Autonomous
governments.
We want to use CIDEsa to develop businesses around our resources, but not in ways like
foreign companies do. We want to develop in a sustainable way and make sure our communities
benefit. But, we do not have the money or the capacity to develop these businesses on our own.
We need partners.
Through Apikan we have made contact with Canadian Indigenous businesses that we
want to work with. They have already been successful in forestry and fishing and other
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businesses and understand us when we tell them about not hurting our land and that our
businesses must benefit our people. We have already signed a number of agreements and are
beginning to look at the feasibility of some of the businesses.
One of the most exciting partnerships we have is with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council
(MLTC). As Wayne said already, they are successful in the forestry business, and they use the
business to support their people. We first met them at an Apikan conference on Indigenous
partnerships last year. They came down to visit our communities last September. They know
exactly what we mean when we talk about our land and our respect for it, about the importance
of our communities and that they must be involved in developing the business. They know we
don’t have money and they have even given us some support to keep operating. They are
working with Canada and CIDA to get money to do a detailed feasibility study, looking first at
forestry and then at other opportunities.
Technical and Operational Support Needs.
We want to be partners with people like MLTC, but we don’t want to be weak partners,
having to rely on our partners for money and expertise all the time. We want to develop our own
capacity. But we need help to do that. We need institutional strengthening, an office and
equipment and the money to operate. We need money to hire people and help with training and
support. I want to talk to the Nordic Council and DANIDA and others about how we can work
together to meet these needs.
In addition to CIDEsa’s need for financial and technical support, our regional
governments and institutions also need technical support if we are to realize all the benefits from
this development. We need institutional strengthening to support our regional governments so
they can develop the capacity to design and implement resource and environmental management
plans and activities; so they can have the capacity to develop and implement other projects in
training and community health and do things to support our local entrepreneurs so they can
benefit from the new businesses. We need support for institutions like BICU, the Bluefields
Indian and Caribbean University which is struggling to develop and train our people.
I hope the international community is ready to help us with our efforts. We are making
this happen ourselves, but we need your support.
Thank you for listening. If you have any questions, I would be happy to talk to you later.
Wayne Dunn
Thank you Samuel for that informative presentation. Now, Samuel and I will provide you with
some recommendations which we hope the Seminar will consider for inclusion in the final
report.
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Recommendations
1. Support the Development of Indigenous Trade and Development Strategies
We recommend that donor countries, international organizations and multi-lateral agencies
provide financial and technical support to Indigenous peoples to assist them with the
development of trade and development strategies, based on the priorities and objectives of
Indigenous peoples, and that the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the Nordic Countries
themselves take a lead role in supporting this recommendation and encouraging others to
support it as well.
2. Commitment of Financial Resources to Developing Inter-Indigenous Partnerships
We recommend that donor countries, international organizations and multi-lateral agencies
should provide financial and technical support to Indigenous peoples to assist them with the
development of inter-Indigenous partnerships, and that the Nordic Council of Ministers, and
the Nordic Countries themselves take a lead role in supporting this recommendation and
encouraging others to support it as well.
3. Support development of Indigenous capacity
We recommend that donor countries, international organizations and multi-lateral agencies
should provide financial and technical support to Indigenous peoples to assist them to develop
the capacity to design, develop and implement development and trade projects, and that the
Nordic Council of Ministers, and the Nordic Countries themselves take a lead role in
supporting this recommendation and encouraging others to support it as well.
4. Oppose European Union Fur Ban (Regulation 3254/91)
We recommend that the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Countries initiate actions
and activities aimed at halting the implementation of the European Union ban on the import of
furs.
5. Global Environment Facility Support for Indigenous Trade and Production
Recognizing that Indigenous peoples are the world’s greatest protectors of bio-diversity, and that
lack of sustainable income generating options often forces people to commit unsustainable
acts simply to survive, and recognizing that the Global Environment Facility can provide a
major source of financing for Indigenous development, we recommend that the Nordic
Council of Ministers and the Nordic Countries encourage the Global Environment Facility to
support projects aimed at promoting sustainable Indigenous trade and productions initiatives.
6. UNDP Support Indigenous Trade and Development
Recognizing that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with its huge infrastructure
of country offices and activities in developing countries, has the capacity to play an important
role in supporting Indigenous trade and production, we recommend that the Nordic Council of
Ministers and the Nordic Countries encourage the UNDP to design, develop and implement
projects and initiatives in support of Indigenous peoples trade and development priorities.
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7. Supporting the Development of Environmental Management Capacity
Recognizing that Indigenous peoples, while possessing effective traditional environmental and
resource management knowledge, often are lacking some of the technical skills to supplement
this knowledge so it can be better applied to governmental environmental and resource
management practices, we recommend that the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic
Countries take a lead role in supporting the development of environmental management
capacity in Indigenous peoples and communities. We note that the Centre for Indigenous
Environmental Resources, based in Winnipeg, Canada, in association with the University of
Manitoba, has developed a degree program in the area of Indigenous environmental
management, and that they have an interest in making this technology available
internationally.
8. Circulation of Workshop Results
It was recommended that the results of this Seminar be given the widest possible circulation.
For additional information concerning these recommendations and this presentation contact:
Wayne Dunn, Executive Director Samuel Mercado, President & CEO
Apikan Indigenous Network Corporation for Indigenous Economic Development
110C Twyford Street 156 Rutherford Court
Ottawa, Ontario Kanata, Ontario
Canada K1V 0V7 Canada K2K N16
Tel: 613-733-6069 Tel: 613-592-7604
Fax: 613-733-7816 Fax: 613-592-2942
Nicaragua Address
New Contact Information Corporación Indígena para el Desarrollo Económico
Wayne Dunn Bello Horizonte Rotonda 1 ½ c. al Sur
Wayne Dunn & Associates Ltd. Casa # A-IV-10
2457 Bakerview Rd Managua, Nicaragua
Mill Bay, BC V0R 2P0 Tel/fax 505-2-490-567
CANADA
Tel 1-250-743-7619
Fax 1-250-743-7659
wayne@waynedunn.com
www.waynedunn.com
Apikan/CIDEsa Presentation 17-Jan-96
Nordic Council of Ministers Seminar on
Indigenous Production and Trade
Copenhagen, Denmark