A/HRC/45/34/Add.3 forest rights claims under the Forest Rights Act. The Supreme Court’s eviction order was suspended temporarily and hearings have been postponed until 2020. The proposed amendments to the Indian Forest Act were formally withdrawn by the Government in midNovember 2019, following an intense national debate. The Special Rapporteur will continue to monitor the situation closely and urges the Supreme Court to give careful consideration to the rights of indigenous peoples in its final decision on the eviction order. 28. In Thailand, the vast majority of indigenous peoples live in protected areas. Three national laws on natural resource management that entered into force in November 2019 could potentially play a role in addressing the persistent tensions between the authorities and communities living in or adjacent to forests in Thailand. These laws are the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act of 2019, the National Park Act of 2019 and the Community Forest Act of 2019. The Community Forest Act applies only outside of national parks. The National Park Act of 2019 (sects. 64–65) envisages that persons registered as living in national parks could potentially participate in conservation projects. Responsibility for the elaboration and control of such projects would, however, remain with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. Furthermore, the National Park Act (sect. 64) requires that a survey be carried out to establish who was living in a national park up until 240 days after the Act entered into force. The consequences for communities that could not be recorded as living in a national park during the period set out for the survey are unclear, and there are concerns that such communities may be charged with trespassing. The National Park Act explicitly excludes land rights (sect. 64) and does not refer to consultations, comanagement or benefit-sharing with indigenous communities. 29. In Timor-Leste, the Special Rapporteur observed how traditional justice systems have, through local regulations referred to as tara bandu, proved to be highly effective resource conservation mechanisms by, for instance, prohibiting and penalizing the cutting and burning of forests and restricting hunting and fishing in specific locations during certain periods, thereby protecting ecosystems and allowing species to regenerate. The Special Rapporteur visited several communities that had effectively resorted to tara bandu in order to expand mangrove forests so as to protect the coastline or to enforce temporary no-fishing zones, with remarkable gains for the coral reef ecosystem.29 30. The Special Rapporteur recognizes the positive response of the funder and implementing partners of the Ridge to Reef project in the Tanintharyi region, southern Myanmar, which was suspended in 2019 following complaints by indigenous communities and other villagers affected. The project is a conservation project worth US$ 21 million involving a consortium of international and national groups, including the Global Environmental Facility, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Flora and Fauna International and the Forest Department of Myanmar. The project intended to expand the protected areas in Tanintharyi by 3.5 million acres, equal to 33.5 per cent of the total land area of the region. The project was planned and designed, however, without the participation or the free, prior and informed consent of the Karen indigenous peoples, while threatening to displace and exclude them from their territories. The Social and Environmental Compliance Unit of UNDP is conducting an investigation into allegations of violations of the rights of indigenous peoples.30 In May 2020, indigenous communities developed an alternative vision for landscape conservation with the aim of protecting biodiversity, livelihoods, local indigenous practices and cultures, and peace throughout the region, and called upon conservation financiers and organizations to abandon top-down conservation initiatives and to support instead the community-based vision for conservation in the region.31 31. The Special Rapporteur has repeatedly raised concerns about the continuing impact of the violations of the rights of the indigenous Karen peoples in the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex in Thailand. The Government of Thailand nominated the Forest Complex to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, first in 2011 and then again in February 2019. The Special Rapporteur sent communications to the Government of Thailand, the UNESCO 29 30 31 8 A/HRC/42/37/Add.2, para. 58. See https://info.undp.org/sites/registry/secu/SECUPages/CaseDetail.aspx?ItemID=28; https://info.undp.org/sites/registry/secu/SECUPages/CaseFile.aspx?ItemID=28; https://www.accountabilitycounsel.org/2019/07/press-release-un-watchdog-visits-myanmar-toinvestigate-conservation-project-jeopardizing-indigenous-peoples-rights. See www.iccaconsortium.org/index.php/2018/07/13/stop-the-ridge-to-reef-project-in-burmamyanmar/.