East Africa Assemblies and the People-to-people Declaration at Laboot

In June 2022, ten indigenous peoples’ communities from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania came together for the ‘East Africa Assembly on Land, Justice and Indigenous Peoples’ Co-operation’, the first round of a series of women-led community-to-community assemblies to explore how to overcome the legacy of colonial conservation in Africa and put an end to indigenous land appropriation, supported by Forest Peoples Programme and Grassroots to Global.

We take care of our lands. We have knowledge, that was gifted to us by our ancestors, that teaches us how to sustain our land and be sustained by it. How can someone that has never lived in our land know how to care for it? How can our people and our lands be managed by laws made by people that live outside the forest and away from the great plains? Living sustainably in our forests, in our great plains, is about relationship, about interdependence. Without the land we wouldn’t be here and without us the richness of our environment would succumb to greed and power.