Climate change and rights of indigenous communities

[Upasana Wahi]

Hi All,

Given the expertise of this group, I was wondering if anyone has been
working on how climate change hits the indigenous communities the
hardest. I read this article a month back about the UN negotiations
that are due to be held in Jan 09 and how not even a single
representative from these minority communities has been included in
the negotiations.

Any information on this would be welcome!

Best

Upasana Wahi

[Bored Wombat]

Interesting question and interesting point.

I'm not aware of that expertise here.

As far as Australia goes, it is an area of recognised deficit in the research:

There has been very little analysis of the impact that climate change will have on Australian indigenous communities. This is a clear gap in the research, which is well recognised by the CSIRO and other major research bodies.
(Climate Action Network, Australia)

In terms of the world, the basis of Kyoto, which is 1990 emissions rather than the more equitable emissions per head very much favours the already rich and geo-politically powerful in terms of responsibility.

Whereas the Impacts are hitting the Sahel and Horn of Africa, South East Asia, and soon the subcontinent will be next, especially Bangladesh.

[August]

Animal Farm - Chapter X by George Orwell

Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs. It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion. There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm. Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand. For example, Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called "files," "reports," "minutes," and "memoranda." These were large sheets of paper which had to be closely covered with writing, and as soon as they were so covered, they were burnt in the furnace. This was of the highest importance for the welfare of the farm, Squealer said. But still, neither pigs nor dogs produced any food by their own labour; and there were very many of them, and their appetites were always good.

As for the others, their life, so far as they knew, was as it had always been. They were generally hungry, they slept on straw, they drank from the pool, they laboured in the fields; in winter they were troubled by the cold, and in summer by the flies. Sometimes the older ones among them racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether in the early days of the Rebellion, when Jones's expulsion was still recent, things had been better or worse than now. They could not remember. There was nothing with which they could compare their present lives: they had nothing to go upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated that everything was getting better and better. The animals found the problem insoluble; in any case, they had little time for speculating on such things now. Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse-hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.

And yet the animals never gave up hope. More, they never lost, even for an instant, their sense of honour and privilege in being members of Animal Farm. ...

[Upasana Wahi]

Thank you so much for the lead! It was really helpful.

I was basically looking for different perspectives on the problem. I am assisting in a campaign that seeks to lobby decision makers at the upcoming UN summits at Poznan and Copenhagen. It is really ironical that not even a single representative from these groups has been consulted while drafting policies that would affect their lives the most.

If you are interested in finding out more about the issue and signing the petition, you can always look at it on the Minority Rights Group website.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have!

Best

Upasana

[August]

Hm. I'm a social anthropologist by education (only a freckin' madman by reputation): I guess I ought to be more interested, but the fact is: reality bites hard. As far as I'm personally concerned, we've got to concentrate our efforts on modernizing industrial society in the directrion of choosing renewable energy systems over earth shattering fossil-fuels. Even from an indigenous peoples' perspective, that should be the priority, methinks.

But hey: why don't you provide a link? - 'Cause you see: what you are saying is really very interesting, thank you.

[Upasana Wahi]

Hi!

Yes it is a very interesting campaign.

You can know more about it on Minority Rights Group International : A Show of Hands : Take action now

[August]

Minority Rights Group International : A Show of Hands : What you need to know

What you need to know

• Indigenous and minority communities are amongst the worst affected by climate change.
• Indigenous communities have a close and unique relationship with nature. They often live in fragile ecosystems such as mountains, sea shores, small islands and the arctic, and because their livelihood is reliant on the environment around them they are worst affected by climate change. Communities such as the Sami in Norway and Finland and Pastoralists in Uganda are threatened by poverty as a result of loss of livelihood due to dramatic changes in the climate.
• Indigenous communities have already begun to feel the impact of climate change. In the Arctic several indigenous Inuit have lost their lives slipping through melting ice caps. Small communities such as the El Molo in Kenya fear extinction.
• In Colombia and Indonesia indigenous and minority communities have been evicted from their lands to make way for bio-fuel plantations, which are seen as a solution to climate change.
• These communities have their own cultures, traditions and languages all of which could be lost forever as they face first hand the impact of climate change.
• Indigenous people have for centuries adapted to changing environments. They hold with them huge resources of traditional knowledge passed down generations that could prove useful for international level adaptation.
• Indigenous and minority communities are also often the poorest and most marginalized and therefore more prone to danger when climate-related disasters occur. India's ostracised Dalits have suffered disproportionately in recent flooding. They are discriminated against, which in some cases has resulted in them being excluded from relief distribution when such disasters occur.
• Because these communities are marginalized they are also likely to be left out in the long run in national level mitigation strategies.

At the international level

The impact of climate change on these communities is often unknown and they are excluded from major UN and inter-governmental discussions on climate change.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the main international convention signed by 192 governments engabling them to share information between countries on climate change and cooperate on adaptation strategies. Under the UNFCCC the Conference of Parties (COP) - which constitutes of all states that have signed the convention - is the main decision making body.
The convention, however, does not recognise the unique position of indigenous or minority communities, nor do they have a system for these communities to be able to participate in the process of developing adaptation and mitigation strategies.
In the last high-level meeting in Bali, UN member states recognized that the needs of indigenous and local communities must be addressed when actions are taken to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries. For many generations, indigenous and local communities have been living in forests and the carbon emissions from deforestation contributes 20% to global warming.
UN states are trying to achieve a new climate change deal by 2009 that sets new carbon emission targets for countries. REDD is one of the major issues that has to be agreed on before 2009. But indigenous and minority communities are not part of these discussions.

Why must indigenous and minority communities be part of UNFCCC discussions?

• They are amongst the worst affected.
• They are uniquely affected.
• The decisions taken by governments at the UNFCCC will undoubtedly affect them and the areas they inhabit.
• Indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge could prove useful for international level adaptation strategies formulated by UNFCCC.
• They are often discriminated and excluded at national level processes and international forums may provide the only opportunity for their voices to be heard.

What you can do

The overall goal is for indigenous and minority voices to be reflected in the decisions taken by the UNFCCC, specifically in any eventual climate change deal.
Sign up to our letter to the UNFCCC calling for:

• The 14th Conference of Parties (the next state party meeting in December 2009 in Poznan, Poland) to adopt a resolution to hold an expert workshop on the impact of climate change on indigenous and minority communities. The recommendations of this workshop should be presented at the 2009 Conference of Parties (COP) meeting in Copenhagen.
• The COP must also create a working group to enable indigenous and minority communities to participate more effectively in the UNFCCC process.
• States must also create a voluntary fund that could help finance community representatives participation at the various international level meetings.

[Karl]

Several months ago I posted an article on this forum on the effects of Climate Change on Indigenous people (its still in here somewhere).

But that was quickly turned into an off-topic mess. I hope this thread fares a little better...

[August]

Key to collecting good climate data - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

“The farmers are in the best position to notice and report changes in climate patterns and production cycles,” said Dr. Rogelio Concepcion, who spoke before the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences convention at the Benguet State University here on Friday.

Concepcion said the farmers’ field experience in agriculture would cure the gap between global information and indicators of climate change in local farming villages and indigenous communities.

This is what is known as localization or visualization of climate change indicators, he said.

[e2e]

I believe we to have very little...