Today, on the occasion of Ogiek Day, TIP is eager to work with Hunter-Gatherers and seeks partnerships toward this end. The Ogiek People are some of Africa’s last remaining forest dwellers routinely subjected to arbitrary forced evictions from their ancestral lands.
Among the significant Indigenous peoples who maintain the earth’s biodiversity, the Hunter-gatherer communities are a small and vital unit. They subsist primarily from food that has been obtained directly from the environment – through hunting animals and gathering plant food and fishing. They have highly effective, adaptive and regenerative food systems and traditional forms of knowledge transmission which are under threat due to loss of biodiversity, land, traditional livelihoods, climate change and other factors. Many hunter-gatherer communities want to develop approaches that match their particular cultural needs and current economic options. However, due to their small numbers, such groups face severe problems of scale when it comes to accessing resources; they are often ignored by funding agencies because tailored approaches will be too expensive. This is a loss to humanity.
"Ogiek community commemorate their 5th anniversary today in style, named ‘Ogiek day’. Marking the day, Ogiek won a landmark judgement at African Court against the government of Kenya on ownership of Mau forest Complex”, shared Daniel M. Kobei, Executive Director, Ogiek Peoples' Development Program(OPDP). “The day is commemorated despite non-implementation of the case by the Kenyan government”, he added.
“TIP is very pleased to get reconnected to the Ogiek Peoples through the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program which is dedicated to promoting, protecting and defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights” remarked Phrang Roy, Coordinator, TIP, on this auspicious day.
Comments