Indigenous Shared Governance, International Law, Mixed Use, and Preserving Rainforest During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article takes a transdisciplinary approach to examining a range of issues related to the topic of Indigenous shared governance. It examines concepts such as free prior informed consent and the role of international law in affecting local reality in the context of a specific illustrative example in South America in the Amazon biome: the Iwokrama Forest and its communities in Guyana. The role of international law in preserving biodiversity, climate, and rainforests is considered as well. The article also considers legal, ethical, and scientific perspectives on issues related to mixed uses of rainforests. These include shared stewardship of natural resources, ecotourism, the means of funding scientific research and use of rainforests for science, reduced impact logging and green commerce certifications, and whether benefits of a mixed-use approach to natural resources are shared with Indigenous people. Finally, the article describes the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers options for responding to the additional stresses of the pandemic, which include exacerbation of illegal mining and logging in protected areas. Besides describing difficult decisions and trade-offs that arise in reality and generalizable take-away observations, the reflections and opinions of local Indigenous representatives are included, and directions for future research are suggested.