Indigenous communities: climate focus
For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have been guardians of the biodiversity of our world, respecting wildlife and preserving traditional knowledge inherited through generations. Today, they continue to safeguard some of the most richly biodiverse areas on the planet. Preserving biodiversity is also key to reversing climate change and supporting vital ecosystems, as these areas are significant carbon sinks. At the same time, many Indigenous communities – especially those in remote regions -- are faced with challenges such as extreme poverty, disease outbreaks, environmental injustice and humanitarian crises. Despite only making up around 6% of the global population, indigenous people protect 80% of the wild areas left in our world.
Scientific research emphasizes the vital role indigenous communities play in conservation, new technical innovations are emerging that will protect these communities and the regions they care for. Forests across the world have critical resources to combat the climate crisis, and deforestation is lower in indigenous regions. Shielding the vast expanse of forests is vital to tackling the climate crisis. The planet and our stability have wavered in recent years, and so these wild areas must be protected.
A report by the UN demonstrated that indigenous peoples are by far the best protectors of our forests as they have a huge expanse of knowledge of the natural world and recognizing the rights of tribal and indigenous people to their land is the most cost-effective action. Unobtrusively, the benefits of their stewardship and their ancestral knowledge of living in symbiosis with nature.
Tragically, many of these communities are facing extinction because many are leaving their community because they are being marginalized. Globally the increasing demand for beef, soy, timber, oil, and minerals means the threats to indigenous peoples and their forest homes are rising. Many community leaders have been killed over disputes around the land in recent years, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these dangers that forest people face.
Txai Suruí, climate activist from Brazil
The struggle of Indigenous peoples, who are often on the front lines of the climate crisis, illustrated by the deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and wildfires devastating tribal lands, was being emphasized at COP26. Indigenous leaders and "traditional knowledge-holders" whose practices can be useful in mitigating and adapting to the effects of a changing climate crisis. At COP 26 delegates and climate, activists were given the platform to present their situation in the hope that they will be protected as will the land they call home. Among the activists was a 24-year-old indigenous climate ambassador from the Brazilian Amazon, Txai Suruí. She addressed world leaders at COP and remarked that they have "closed their eyes" to climate change. Her speech covered the extreme loss of biodiversity and the many Indigenous activists who have been killed for guarding their ancestral roots. Suruí has received death threats because of her work. Allowing these Indigenous communities the opportunity to exhibit their experience of climate change is at the very heart of her mission. She reinforced that climate action can no longer be delayed because the earth is stressing to us that there is no more time to wait because protecting nature and Indigenous communities is essential in safeguarding our future. After her speech, Txai was criticized by the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who come out strongly against lands reserved for indigenous tribes. In his two years as president, Bolsonaro has commanded over the destruction of about 10,000 square miles of the Brazilian rainforest, one of the most precious ecosystems on the planet and home to both tribes and Indigenous communities but also already endangered animals. Following her speech, she, sadly, received death threats and abuse online. This surely demonstrates that we must protect these communities and their stories to move forward as a collective into a greener future.
Many people perceive the way of life of the Indigenous people as archaic, primitive and not economically viable. In actuality, they are better prepared for the reality of the future than any of us. Indigenous people don’t see our earth as something that can be exploited or seen as a commodity that it is our divine right to destroy. Instead, they respect our earth. The guardians of nature are listening to the desperate calls for help from mother nature by living more sustainably. The fact that their livelihood is being threatened, instead of admired and listened to, is as concerning as climate change itself. Morally, we cannot be complacent, we must act and change the world for the future. Should children dance, sing and look forward to the prospect of an exciting future, or snarl and break into a flame of anger at the news of our inheritance?
