Derek Wall -- Copenhagen, climate change and indigeneous peoples
10 November 2009
The framework for climate change policy under discussion at Copenhagen will fail unless their is place in the negotiations for indigenous people.
At the Bali meeting on international climate policy, indigenous people demonstrated outside and were not allowed to take part in the discussions. Indeed, so far, indigenous people have been entirely excluded from the international meetings to negotiate climate change policy. If we are to have climate justice and to halt climate change before disaster occurs, indigenous people must have a place at the table.
Indigenous people have been at the forefront of opposition to the extraction of the most polluting forms of fossil fuels. Cree activists have been opposing the use of the tar sands in Canada, incidentally exploitation of the tar sands is funded by the govenment owned RBS bank. Tar sands are much more carbon intensive than conventional sources of oil and their exploitation is being resisted by local indigenous communities because of the damage it would do to their local environment (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/23/london-tar-sands-climate-protest).
Indigenous people have a tremendous record of living in rainforests and other vital ecosystems in environmentally sustainable ways. The rainforests act as a carbon sink absorbing CO2, their destruction will release C02 and accelerate climate change. Yet indigenous people are under assault across the globe and with their disappearance the rainforests are taken as well In Peru the Peruvian inter cultural association of the Amazon have successfully prevent attempts by the government to sell 70% of the countries forests to oil contractors. The indigenous people of Peru have to use non violent direct action to protest and the sell of their land and on world environment day this year over a hundred indigenous people were killed at Bagua http://www.huffingtonpost.com/groundreport/up-to-250-indigenous-peru_b_214517.html.
In West Papua, the Indonesian government illegally occupy rainforests which are being logged while the West Papuan people suffer human rights abuse http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/centres/cpacs/docs/Papua_Desk_the_New_threat_to_West_Papua_forests_Oil_Palm.pdf
There are many other examples of deforestation linked to resource extraction going hand in hand with the removal of indigenous people.
The first women to win a Nobel Prize for economics Professor Elinor Ostrom has called for recognition of the vital role indigenous people have in combatting climate change http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2009/10/26/000158349_20091026142624/Rendered/PDF/WPS5095.pd
The Green Party echo this call and argue that indigenous people must have land rights recognised, that they must have an official role in international climate policy and that aspects of climate policy such as REDDS must not be implemented without the say of indigenous people.'
A meeting of indigenous people in Alaska in April 2009 produced a declaration insisting that indigenous people be given a place at the climate negoiating table http://www.indigenoussummit.com/servlet/content/declaration.html.
The preamble to this Anchorage declaration notes:
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The Anchorage Declaration
24 April 2009
From 20-24 April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena'ina Athabascan Peoples in whose lands we gathered.
We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change. We reaffirm the unbreakable and sacred connection between land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and our human communities as the material and spiritual basis for our existence.
We are deeply alarmed by the accelerating climate devastation brought about by unsustainable development. We are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on our cultures, human and environmental health, human rights, well-being, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, local infrastructure, economic viability, and our very survival as Indigenous Peoples.
Mother Earth is no longer in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life.
Through our knowledge, spirituality, sciences, practices, experiences and relationships with our traditional lands, territories, waters, air, forests, oceans, sea ice, other natural resources and all life, Indigenous Peoples have a vital role in defending and healing Mother Earth. The future of Indigenous Peoples lies in the wisdom of our elders, the restoration of the sacred position of women, the youth of today and in the generations of tomorrow.
We uphold that the inherent and fundamental human rights and status of Indigenous Peoples, affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), must be fully recognized and respected in all decision-making processes and activities related to climate change. This includes our rights to our lands, territories, environment and natural resources as contained in Articles 25-30 of the UNDRIP. When specific programs and projects affect our lands, territories, environment and natural resources, the right of Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples must be recognized and respected, emphasizing our right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, including the right to say "no". The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreements and principles must reflect the spirit and the minimum standards contained in UNDRIP.
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