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.