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Indigenous Peoples in the Asia-Pacific region

Factsheet on Indigenous Women for Asia and the Pacific

Year of publication 2018

Place of publication Bangkok, Thailand ;

Pages 4

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The factsheet gives a brief overview of indigenous peoples in the Asia and the Pacific region, which is home to the largest number of indigenous people with 70 percent of the 370 million original inhabitants worldwide. They share a strong connection to their lands and have developed a rich body of traditional knowledge on agro biodiversity and preservation of endangered seeds that enriches all. However, across the Asia Pacific indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable and marginalized peoples. Recent estimates indicate that indigenous peoples make up approximately 5 percent of the global population and they comprise about 15 percent of the global extreme poor. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has long realized that in order to achieve its mandate of eradicating food and nutrition insecurity and poverty through sustainable agricultural development and natural resource management, development efforts must include farmers, fisherfolks and forest dependent people, including indigenous peoples, as key actors and partners. Indigenous peoples in the region include tribal peoples, hill tribes, aboriginal people and ethnic minorities. Irrespective of their legal status or the way in which countries refer to them, many indigenous peoples of Asia, experience non-recognition of their cultural identity.

Language English

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