Climate a “Life and Death” Issue for Native Peoples

Climate a “Life and Death” Issue for Native Peoples

By Haider Rizvi

www.commondreams.org/archive…24/8491/

UNITED NATIONS - Leaders of the world’s 370 million indigenous
peoples are calling for the United Nations to include their voices in
its future talks on climate change.0424 08

“Both the climate change and its solutions are concerns for
indigenous peoples,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairperson of the
U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Currently, the Forum, which includes 16 representatives — eight
nominated by governments and eight by indigenous representatives — is
holding its seventh annual meeting in New York. The meeting is being is
being attended by more than 3,300 delegates from around the world.

“The indigenous peoples contribute the smallest ecological
footprints on Earth,” according to Tauli-Corpuz, “but they suffer the
worst impacts from climate change and mitigation measures, such as the
loss of land and biofuel production.”

Despite representation from nearly 500 aboriginal groups worldwide,
the Forum is not empowered to enact laws; it can only advise the
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a 54-member U.N. body, whose
members are elected by the General Assembly every three years.

Last year in September, the General Assembly passed a historic
resolution calling for the recognition of indigenous peoples’ right to
control their lands and resources, but fell short of saying the
“Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples” was
legally binding.

Indigenous leaders they want both the governments and private
corporations to incorporate the declaration into their national
economic, political, cultural and environmental policies, so that
indigenous people can participate in the process of development in a
meaningful way.

“The indigenous peoples have observed and felt the impact of
climate change before anybody else,” said Tauli-Corpuz. “They are
becoming ‘environmental refugees’ [because] small island states are
sinking due to rising sea-levels.”

According to Fiu Elisara, executive director of the Ole Siosiomaga
Society of Samoa island, climate change has become “a life-and-death”
issue for the Pacific island states, also known as the “liquid
continent”.

“One cyclone is enough to completely wipe out one island state,” he
said, adding that 90 percent of the people in the Pacific are
indigenous who have nowhere to turn to for help because most of their
rulers have not signed the declaration.

Indigenous leaders say many of their communities in mega-biodiverse
countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil are greatly
suffering due to extensive use of their lands and forests for biofuels
in the name of carbon-trading and climate change mitigation.

Tauli-Corpuz said such activities are being carried out by
governments and private corporations without the “prior and informed
consent” of the indigenous peoples, an issue that environmental
organisations and indigenous groups have repeatedly raised at various
international forums.

Elisara and other indigenous leaders say they intend to press U.N.
member states to recognise the principle of “prior and informed
consent” in its legally-binding treaties concerning sustainable
development and environmental preservation.

The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) promotes and
protects the ownership by indigenous people of their traditional
knowledge, but the principle of “informed consent” for the use of
indigenous lands is not part of its provisions.

In supporting the indigenous peoples’ demand, the CBD executive
secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said he would like to see the treaty be
translated into “national laws and national actions”.

“The convention has a unique procedure that recognises the
indigenous peoples as partners,” he told IPS. “It’s the first
international convention to have a fully fledged programme and
full-time team dedicated to the issues of indigenous peoples and the
protection of the knowledge that has been accumulated over millennia.”

Tauli-Corpuz and other other representatives of the Forum said they
want the U.N. member countries to translate the declaration into a
“living document”, but acknowledged that would not be an easy task,
because some powerful nations are still reluctant to embrace it.

Last year in September, when a vast majority of the U.N. General
Assembly supported the declaration, the United States, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand cast their votes in opposition. However,
recently both Canada and Australia issued statements indicating their
willingness to endorse the declaration.

Some countries with large indigenous populations, such as Bolivia
and Ecuador, according to Tauli-Corpuz, have assured the Forum that
they were willing to adopt the declaration as part of their national
laws.

At a news conference Monday, Bolivia’s indigenous president, Evo
Morales, said the indigenous peoples have the moral authority to shape
“a new model for living” because “they live closely to Mother Nature
and have defended it for ages.”

“Mother Earth is the wellspring of life that must be cherished and
respected rather than treated as a tradable commodity,” he added in a
statement highlighting the significance of the role of the indigenous
peoples in protecting the environment and preserving Earth’s
biodiversity.

During the two-week meeting, the Forum leaders said they would
recommend a number of proposals to the U.N. member states, including
the one concerning their demand for participation in the international
decision-making on climate change mitigation.

© 2008 Inter Press Service