Dana +20
Recognising Mobile Peoples' Rights within the Conservation, Sustainable Development, and Climate Change Movements
Wadi Dana, Jordan
7-10 September, 2022
Twenty years since the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation was articulated in Wadi Dana, Jordan, the Refugee Studies Centre partnered with University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment, and the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN, Jordan) to take stock of achievements and progress over the past two decades, and to consider emerging and evolving challenges faced by Mobile Peoples worldwide.
At the Dana +20 workshop, representatives of the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), concerned policy makers and academics, and representatives of Mobile Peoples from around the world – including Mongolia, Malaysia, India, Iran, Jordan, Sweden, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, and Peru – were brought together in Wadi Dana, Jordan, between 7-10 September to mark this important anniversary.
A series of pre-meetings were held online with delegates from June-August 2022 to discuss and develop key themes for the final workshop agenda.
About Dana +20
Over the four days of the workshop, the 40 participants of the workshop made presentations and discussed the continuing or emerging issues in their homelands and met in plenary and small breakout groups. Formal presentations from academics on the histories of Indigenous rights, significance of Wadi Dana for the Dana Declaration, trends in conservation over the past 20 years, and the evolution of international human rights law for Indigenous Peoples were made.
Representatives of Mobile Peoples led, chaired, and moderated the sessions and themes addressed, which included land rights, legal mechanisms, and more equitable knowledge exchange and partnerships between academics and Mobile Peoples.
The aim of the workshop was to pull together an updated statement of concern around the common issues of mobility, fragmentation, continuing dispossession and displacement, land grabbing, climate change, food security, extractive industries, and the positive economic, cultural, and political contributions of Mobile Peoples that emerged.
Towards the end of the third day, a small, elected group of individuals produced a draft Action Plan and first draft of the Dana Declaration + 20 statement. On the final morning, the participants of the Dana+20 workshop reviewed the statement and action plan and approved it, alongside agreeing to change the name from statement to manifesto.
A one-page executive summary of the manifesto was subsequently produced. The Dana +20 workshop concluded on the afternoon of Saturday 10th September 2022.
The final Dana+20 Manifesto on Mobile Peoples is a call to action for governments, conservationists and environmentalists, corporations and international stakeholders. The final workshop report includes a detailed overview of proceedings.
The Dana +20 Manifesto on Mobile Peoples will be delivered to the UN PFII and COP conferences. The workshop further establishes groundwork and strategic direction for the forthcoming International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026, agreed by the UN General Assembly.
Presentations
Below is a list of presentations given at the Dana +20 workshop.
Why the Dana Declaration?
And why in Wadi Dana Jordan?
Dawn Chatty
Trends in conservation policy and practice over the past 20 years
Helen Newing
Signposts on the Road to Wadi Dana:
international progress towards rights to territory and self-determination for mobile indigenous peoples:
1776 - 2002!
Marcus Colchester
Gallery
On September 7, 2022, Her Royal Highness, Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan, opened a four day workshop conference at Wadi Dana Nature Reserve for the 20-year anniversary of the Dana Declaration. The organisers of the Dana +20 workshop had invited 10 researchers and practitioners to meet with 20 delegates of mobile indigenous peoples from around the world to reaffirm, redirect, and re-examine the Dana Declaration.
The Dana +20 Meeting was supported by
