E/2010/43 E/C.19/2010/15 traditional knowledge has developed in tune with the forests on their lands and territories. Indigenous peoples who live in forest areas have clearly defined rights to land and natural resources, including communal ownership of their ancestral lands, management of the natural resources on their territories, the exercise of their customary laws, and the capacity to represent themselves through their own institutions. 154. Unfortunately, States have considered indigenous peoples’ forests as Statecontrolled forests and converted them for other uses such as logging, agribusiness plantations and mineral, oil and gas extraction. Such encroachments often force indigenous peoples out of their territories. Furthermore, some conservation schemes that establish national parks and wilderness reserves deny forest-dwelling indigenous peoples their rights. 155. The Permanent Forum recommends that States recognize the right of indigenous peoples to own, control, use and have access to their forests, and calls on States to reform their laws and policies that deny indigenous peoples that right. The Forum is gravely concerned about the continuing eviction of indigenous peoples from their forests and calls on States and the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations to protect and respect the rights of forest-dwelling and forest-dependent indigenous peoples and to provide redress to those whose rights have been violated. 156. The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision taken by the General Assembly in its resolution 61/193 to declare 2011 the International Year of Forests. The Forum calls on the United Nations Forum on Forests to work closely with the secretariat of the Permanent Forum to ensure the full participation of indigenous peoples in the design and implementation of the activities planned for the International Year of Forests, including the implementation of the recommendations referred to in paragraph 23 above. 157. As part of its mandate on the environment, the Permanent Forum has raised concerns and made recommendations pertaining to indigenous peoples and forests. The Forum has consistently recommended that the United Nations Forum on Forests and forest-related United Nations bodies develop effective means to monitor and verify the participation of indigenous peoples in forest policymaking and sustainable forest management, and establish a mechanism, with the participation of indigenous peoples, to assess the performance of governmental and intergovernmental commitments and obligations to uphold and respect indigenous peoples’ rights (see E/C.19/2004/23). 158. The Permanent Forum recommends that forests that have been taken by States from indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent in the name of conservation policies be restored immediately. 159. The Permanent Forum welcomes the announcement during this session of the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights by eight global conservation organizations — the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund, Fauna and Flora International, Wetlands International, BirdLife International, the Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International — which aims to promote the integration of human rights in conservation policy and practice, based on their common interest in promoting positive links between conservation and rights of 24 10-36959