BUENOS Aires, Argentina – The leading representative of indigenous peoples at the World Forestry Congress (WFC) has resigned from his position in protest against what he considers to be the meeting’s bias towards government and big business.

Dr Miguel Lovera of the Indigenous People’s Organisation (IPO) resigned from the advisory committee of the congress, which is being held here.

“We have not been consulted at all about speakers or other elements of the congress’ programme,” claimed a letter written by Andrey Laletin on Lovera’s behalf. “Having now reviewed the final programme as it is posted on the WFC website, we feel there is a severe lack of participation of Indigenous Peoples and Southern NGOs amongst the main speakers. Except for two keynote speakers from COICA, the co-ordinating body on Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, we recognise hardly any indigenous peoples’ representatives amongst the speakers.”

Indigenous peoples, including those of the Amazon in Brazil, have been engaged in the long struggle to have an equal say in how forests – one of their main sources of livelihood and which many of them call home – are managed.

Over the years, they have been pushed off forest lands, which are then cleared for the production of goods such as soybean as well as for the development of palm oil plantations, cattle ranching and logging.

Yesterday’s resignation came just a day into the congress, which opened Sunday under the theme ‘Forests in development – a vital balance” and on the heels of a protest by a group of indigenous peoples just outside the congress doors, ahead of the opening.

“We feel the programme of the congress is very much biased towards industry and government representation and that it lacks representation of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities,” complained Laletin, acting chairman of the Global Forest Coalition, in the letter to Jan Heino, assistant director-general and head of the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is sponsoring the congress.

The letter, dated October 14, was circulated at the congress on Monday.

Lovera is also the chairman of the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) – an entity set up in 2000 by 19 NGOs and IPOs from across the world. It succeeds the Forest Networking Group that organised advocacy campaigns on issues such as the rights of indigenous peoples and the need for socially just forest policy.

The GFC now serves as an inclusive, informal alliance of Southern and Northern NGOs and IPOs, with its primary objective being to facilitate the informed participation of NGOs and IPOs in international forest policy meetings. It also produces independent monitoring reports on, among other things, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.