Save Mother Earth

By Alma Grace Barla
On September 21, 2014 the world witnessed a large-scale activist event “People’s Climate March” to advocate action against climate change which took place in New York City followed by many countries including India. Some 400,000 participants from across the globe together with environmental justice organizations, celebrities, unions, schools and indigenous communities proclaimed their support of New York Declaration on Forest, to do their parts to halving deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. Forest took centre stage at the UN Climate Summit when dozens of global leaders announced huge reductions to global warming pollution – by unveiling the first global timeline to slow and end deforestation. More than 30 countries, governments, civil society groups, corporates like Unilever, Philips, Axe Body Spray, L’Oreal, Dove Soap, Golden Agri-resources, Big Palm Oiler Producer Cargill, Asia Pulp & Paper, McDonals, Nestle, Kellog’s etc. were among those pledged to combat deforestation. This new pledge was the first time in history that a critical mass of developed and developing country leaders partnered around such a goal.

Meeting these goals would cut between 4.5 billion and 8.8 billion tons of carbon pollution every year. The Declaration also includes a commitment to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of forest land. Although many environmental organizations like Green Peace International welcomes the move, it states that the Declaration is missing ambitious targets and tangible actions, therefore it’s important to hold those involved in the declaration accountable and ensure actions are taken. Certainly it’s a good move that after long five years, once again the world leaders came together to renew the momentum. Even though we have seen many declarations, conferences, meetings in the past, what really matters now is the action followed from it.

In the same week another high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly’s 69th Session, known as World Conference of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP 2014, took place on 22-23 Sept.) which brought together over a thousand of indigenous and government delegates from across the globe to discuss the realization of their rights including pursuing the objectives of the UN Declaration on Right of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2007. This was also followed by Equator Prize 2014 Award ceremony hosted by UNDP to honour indigenous and local communities for creating bold and creative pathways to save the mother earth through conservation and sustainable use of nature.

Among the 25 prize winners was the Chhattisgarh Traditional Healer Association, which empowers traditional healers “village botanists” to serve as agents of positive community-level change by showing them how to use traditional medicinal plants to meet modern medical needs like treating fever, colds, arthritis, malaria, gastro-intestinal diseases, and a range of public health concerns.

Thus, the WCIP and a week-long side events concluded with a prime focus on Mother Earth and the future of the Planet which is a sign of hope towards a “full life and not just survival” of 370 million world’s indigenous peoples.

In 2007, while addressing a conference, UN General Secretary Mr Banki Moon once said that even though the effects of climate change are being felt around the world, they are being felt most by vulnerable communities. The terrible irony for many developing countries is that, though they have contributed the least to the process of climate change, they are the ones most at risk from its consequences. While not being specific, his statement could very well have been made about indigenous and forest dwellers because they are the ones who will bear the brunt of the consequences of climate change even though they have contributed the least to climate change.

On the one hand the rich or city people are better equipped to handle climate effects – as their life is more technology- based, they do not directly depend on natural resources or agriculture for subsistence or employment; but on the other hand, the rural people face the direct consequences of climate change, due to their dependency and close relationship with the environment. For many indigenous communities, climate change is already a reality.

In the high altitude regions of the Himalayas, glacial melts affecting hundreds of millions of rural dwellers who depend on the seasonal flow of water is resulting in more water in the short term, but less in the long run as glaciers and snow cover shrink. In the Amazon, deforestation and forest fragmentation, more carbon is released into the atmosphere intensifying and creating further changes. Indigenous peoples in the Arctic region depend on hunting for polar bears, walrus, seals and caribou, herding reindeer, fishing and gathering, not only for food to support the local economy, but also as the basis for their cultural and social identity. Their major challenges include the change in species and availability of traditional food sources, perceived reduction in weather predictions and the safety of travelling in changing ice and weather conditions, posing serious challenges to human health and food security. In Finland, Norway and Sweden, rain and mild weather during the winter season often prevents reindeer from accessing lichen, which is a vital food source.

This has caused massive loss of reindeer, which are vital to the culture, subsistence and economy of Saami communities. In African countries rising temperatures, increased wind speeds, and loss of vegetation are negatively impacting traditional pastoralists to maintain their livestock, largely affecting their economy and making their survival tough. (www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday)

In Asian countries which is a home to around 260-300 million indigenous population is most culturally diverse region in the world where cyclones, hailstorms, sea level rise, floods and prolonged droughts are occurring more often severely impacting the lives of indigenous peoples. Further, the economy, social organization, identity, and cultural and spiritual values of the indigenous peoples are closely linked to their biological diversity. Therefore, climatic uncertainties cause specific effects such as demographic changes, loss of livelihoods and food security; land and natural resource degradation; water shortages, health problems, loss of traditional knowledge, housing, forest and natural resource management; and human rights etc.

In addition to these direct impacts, change in government’s development policies such as land & forest policies, climate change policies and measures relating to mitigation and adaptation have serious adverse implications to indigenous peoples. For instance, in India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand etc there are many cases of forced evictions or displacement of indigenous peoples from their homelands as a result of mitigation measures such as construction of large dams, bio-fuel plantations and creation of Protected Areas in their territories without their (community) consent. Several Asian countries have legislations that to some extent protect the rights of indigenous peoples, but these rights are, however, systematically watered down, often simply ignored or overruled.

While many argue that there is no scientific proof for climate change caused by greenhouse gas emission and climate change is natural for many reasons, for the indigenous peoples “issues related to territory, land, forest and natural resources, seas, rivers, are today the soul of indigenous rights,” says Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ms Rigoberta Menchú Thump, an indigenous Guatemalan woman activist.

Ms Rigoberta Menchú

However, indigenous peoples should not be looked upon as just ‘vulnerable people’ to climate change. What is being missed out is that Indigenous peoples are ecosystem peoples who have sound knowledge and intimate relationship with their environment. Indigenous knowledge is unique to a given culture and environment as they are acquired through generations of empirical experiences to improve the anticipated adverse consequences associated with climate change. These rich knowledge systems and practices can be tapped to provide solution to many mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change.

Many indigenous peoples are taking their own initiatives in coping with climate change in the form of identifying the changes that are occurring in climatic patterns and the ensuing challenges. In some cases, indigenous communities have developed specific coping strategies to extreme variations of weather, such as crop diversification to minimize risk of harvest failures – such as shifting to river bank, high mountains or close to higher forest; improving food preservation methods and techniques, maintenance of food and seed banking with the network of different communities, change of food habits – such as gathering more forest produces during bad harvest, introduction of multi-cropping system, conservation of forest, water shed and restoration of eco-systems, awareness raising, designing culturally appropriate adaptation and mitigation development plans as required and defined by the communities etc.

Both the New York Declaration on Forests and the Outcome Document of the WCIP 2014 acknowledges several of the problems referred to indigenous population and their rights over land forest and resources. In particular, the draft Outcome Document acknowledges (a) the right to free, prior and informed consent on legal and administrative measures and the acknowledgment, advancement and adjudication of our land rights; (b) indigenous peoples knowledge, innovations, technologies and practices on sustainable livelihoods and occupations, eco system management and biodiversity; (c) IPs justice systems; and (d) inclusion of IPs rights, priorities and strategies in the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda process (article 32). Finally at the international level, several other corresponding measures are needed, including (a) an effective UN monitoring mechanism to review the progress of the Outcome Document; (b) implementation of UN system resolutions and policies, including the indigenous peoples mandated mechanisms; and (c) monitoring of multilateral and bilateral treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements. Equally important, countries need to review their constitutional, treaty-based, legal, policy and implementation mechanisms and processes, in a respectful and effective partnership with Indigenous Peoples. 

Chhattisgarh Traditional Healer Association • The association empowers “village botanists” to serve as agents of positive community-level change by showing them how to use traditional medicinal plants to meet modern medical needs. Work also focuses on getting formal scientific certification to traditional medicines that are proving effective in treating fever, colds, arthritis, malaria, gastro-intestinal diseases, and a range of public health concerns. Health services are provided to more than 50,000 families across 500 villages in 12 districts, and the average medical costs in communities served has been reduced by 70%. More than one million trees and half a million medicinal seedlings have been planted in 100 villages, restoring rare and threatened flora and fauna and improving local health and livelihoods in the process. (Courtesy:www.equatorinitiative.org) • Winner of 2014 Equator Prize by UNDP for taking an inventive approach reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health, and facilitating local access to medical care in a region characterized by hunger and malnutrition, poor water and hygiene, and high communicable disease rates.

[Note: There is a continuing debate on the appropriateness and use of term “indigenous peoples” because it is politically problematic to identify indigenous peoples in India. “adivasis” which literally means “original inhabitants’ is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the original or indigenous population in India. In some countries, they are called tribes, first peoples/nations aboriginals (Canada, New Zealand), ethnic groups, adivasi (Bangladesh,India), janajati (Nepal), Native or Indians (Americas). Occupational and geographical terms like hunter-gatherers, nomads, peasants, hill people, etc., also exist and for all practical purposes can be used interchangeably with “indigenous peoples”]

First Published in Indian Currents, 13 - 19 October, 2014, pgs. 38-41