A/HRC/27/66 peoples, and should be the key starting point for any consideration of their individual and collective rights. Although the Declaration does not explicitly address disaster risk reduction, several of its provisions have implications for the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights in this area, and can provide guidance for the design and implementation of sound disaster risk reduction strategies and interventions. 12. Self-determination, enshrined in articles 3 and 4 of the Declaration, is of paramount importance in this respect. As article 4 states, in exercising their right to self-determination, indigenous peoples have “the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.” Local plans for disaster risk reduction and preparedness would certainly fall under article 4. 13. Article 18, on the right to participate in decision-making, and articles 19 and 32, which address free, prior and informed consent, can also provide guidance in the context of disaster risk reduction. In applying these articles, it becomes clear that indigenous peoples are entitled to participate in disaster risk reduction processes and that States have the obligation to consult with them and to seek to obtain their free, prior and informed consent concerning risk reduction measures that may affect them. Risk reduction is more likely to be successful if indigenous decision-making processes and traditional knowledge are respected. 14. Article 31 affirms the right of indigenous peoples to maintain and protect their traditional knowledge and the manifestations of their sciences and technologies, as well as providing safeguards for the protection of this right. Traditional knowledge has a valuable role to play in disaster risk reduction and it should be recognized and protected accordingly. All too often, mainstream disaster management institutions have ignored indigenous knowledge, and many successful local practices have disappeared as a consequence of nonindigenous influence. At other times, indigenous peoples’ practices have adapted to changing environments. 15. Article 23 affirms indigenous peoples’ right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. This includes “the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them”. In the same way that indigenous peoples have the right to be involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes, they must also be actively involved in designing and conducting vulnerability studies and strategies that aim to reduce their risk. Similarly, article 32 upholds indigenous peoples’ right to determine and develop priorities for the use of their lands and territories, which would include their possible use for disaster risk reduction initiatives. 16. The conservation and protection of the environment is closely linked to disaster risk reduction, and the Declaration provides a strong normative framework in this respect. According to article 29, “indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources.” Given the potential impact of disasters on indigenous peoples’ lands and their productive capacity, sound disaster risk reduction strategies, developed with the active participation of indigenous peoples, would contribute to the fulfilment of article 29. 17. Disaster risk reduction, in extreme cases, might involve removal from areas that are deemed unsafe from a disaster point of view (e.g. from an area that has a high risk of landslides or is located along the banks of a river that is prone to flooding). Article 10 of the Declaration states that indigenous peoples “shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories” and prohibits relocation without the free, prior and informed consent of the peoples concerned, agreement on compensation and, where possible, the option of return. 5