Indigenous People And Climate Change

 

Indigenous people are peoples who are native to a particular geographical area and have lived there for a long time frame (decades to centuries) before the arrival of other migratory peoples bent on conquest. Indigenous people can trace their ancestral heritage to a particular region which they have occupied for a very long time.

There are more than 476 million indigenous people in the world today. They are about 5% of the Earth’s population but constitute 15% of its poorest. However 22% of the Earth’s surface is under their management and 80% of the Earth’s natural wild flora and fauna, its biodiversity, is also in indigenous territories.

The colourful Samburu community of Kenya. Source laura/iwaria

With regard to climate change, indigenous peoples are important because they are a vital component in the climate fight. They are also a unique group of people who are differently affected by human caused climatic changes. We look at a few reasons why.

Indigenous people are specially affected by climate change because firstly they are at the lowest levels of economic growth. They are poor in comparison to the rest of the world’s population. As mentioned earlier, they make 15% of the world’s poor. This makes them extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change because first, they do not have the financial capability to protect themselves against the harsh impacts of climate change; and neither the ability to rebound economically when hit by the same.

Climate change affects the poor more, and also increases the number of people who live in poverty. Indigenous peoples fall in this category, with a good percentage of the about 100 million people who are projected to be made poorer by climate change being them.

The second reason is that indigenous people rely on natural resources for a livelihood. Their culture, economy and livelihoods is nature centric. These peoples have a very intimate relationship with the environment and view the natural world as a central pillar and part of their existence. These natural resources are however increasingly affected by climate effects such as rainfall variations, droughts, heat waves, floods, storms, sea level rise and the like.

A good example is the forest tribes of the Amazon, who depend on the forest for a livelihood. However, wildfires as a result of higher temperatures and droughts are increasingly destroying forested areas. These are also the habitat of animal and plant species who are important to indigenous economies. Another example is the reduction of river volumes or warming of waters which are used for fishing, navigation and the like.

The third is geographical location. A large number of indigenous peoples are found in geographical areas that are especially sensitive to climate change. This includes islands, forests, deserts, highlands, peatlands, coastal areas etc. Mountains for example are facing glacial melt because of climate change, and glaciers are disappearing. Tribes whose way of life relied on glaciers are thus affected. The Arctic tribes are facing disruption because of thawing ice. Sea level rise threatens the existence of islands. Storms and intruding sea water erode coastal areas and threaten mangroves with flooding. Desertification and droughts are another consequence of climate change affecting historically pastoralist communities. And in such manner all who relied on these are affected.

The fourth factor is climate caused migration. Human migration has always existed but for indigenous peoples, this is different. Based on the above, the acreage of indigenous territories is threatened not only by climate change but also by other types of environmental destruction such as pollution. But especially because of climate change negatively affecting the way of life of these peoples, some of their population is forced to migrate. Migration has its social and political pressures, such as the conflict between visitors and the locals, and this can sometimes turn violent. Furthermore for indigenous people, it is more of a cultural and economic shock because they live in primarily rural areas and in close contact with the natural environment. When this is affected by climate change, they form part of rural urban migration and end up in cities working jobs that are not nature based at all, and are low income.

Because of their economic conditions, they also tend to migrate and live in lower cost poor housing such as slums.

This also has the effect of losing traditional values and knowledge because such is passed down through contact and linkages between older and the younger people in indigenous societies.

Crucially, indigenous people already face discrimination, but when migration occurs, the women particularly have it worse; being discriminated against because of both their gender and identity. This is the fifth factor. Gender discrimination is already a problem both within indigenous societies and globally. However, indigenous women not only have to contend with these inequalities levelled at them because of their gender but also have to deal with the social consequences of being from the tribes.

They are therefore found most often doing lower cadre and unskilled work, such as domestic work and childcare. This opens them up to being taken advantage of because of lower literacy levels and ambiguous working arrangements. They can even be hired in casual labour.

The sixth factor is land rights and tenure. Often, properties and territories held by indigenous groups are not legally recognized, and in the past these peoples have outrightly been pushed out of their ancestral lands and moved to reservations. Their lands have been grabbed or annexed forcibly by other parties. Indigenous lands are often historically communally owned yet title deeds and other proof of ownership documents have been withheld from these peoples.

This also happens in cases where the natural ecosystems where they reside contain resources of great value such as minerals or fossil fuels.

As such, indigenous peoples lack the legal capacity to make decisions on land use and protection of the natural resources under their care. Another point is maladaptation or poor climate change adaptation processes that infringe on their rights.

An example is ejection of forest dwelling peoples from forests in an effort at conservation to enhance carbon sequestration. This loss of territory is against human rights and directly causes friction between them and climate action efforts.

All this notwithstanding, indigenous peoples are unique and vital in the climate fight. This is because of a couple of factors. Premier most is that they possess a great wealth of environmental wisdom and knowledge. They have lived in harmonious coexistence with nature for generations and because of their natural way of life, they have learned to conserve nature. This is vital for nature based solutions to climate change.

Their traditions, spiritual and cultural practices are closely tied to nature and so they have a deeply ingrained inclination to protect nature.

For example, the Ogiek of Kenya who live in forests view soil tillage as a taboo. Their beliefs consequently forbid them from farming the land. This is an important way of preserving soil carbon stores and reducing emissions from land use and degradation.

Indigenous peoples know how to use natural resources without depleting them. They depend on nature for economic sustenance and food security yet they do not destroy nature. They have found a balance.

This is primarily because their view of nature is not exploitative but partnership based. In other words, they don’t view themselves as superior to nature but as part of it. They therefore take care of natural ecosystems. For example, fishing areas under indigenous peoples do not suffer depletion but in fact thrive in terms of species diversity. Forests under their care have richer biodiversity compared to others and a far lower rate of carbon loss from deforestation.

Indigenous peoples also have very astute and far reaching knowledge of natural phenomena that could be essential in climate action. They have traditional ‘early warning systems’ which date back centuries. They are able to interpret the appearance of the skies or ocean, the ambient temperature and growth patterns in plants or behavior of animals in order to correctly predict the approaching state of climate or weather.

In this way, they are able to either migrate or adapt quickly to incoming climatic changes.

Rightful inclusion of indigenous peoples, their rights and knowledge in both mitigation and adaptation efforts is one that could bear fruit in climate action.

Additional acknowledgement of the loss and damages that these communities incur because of climate change is also important.

Many indigenous communities in the Pacific region have faced the permanent loss of their indigenous lands to sea level rise and are forced to move to higher ground or abandon the places all together.

There need to be an internationally recognized framework to accept and resettle climate migrants especially from indigenous groups and ease their transition.

Indigenous people need to be included in climate finance initiatives at a higher level and percentage; and not just as beneficiaries but having power to decide on the processes and usage of resources.

Partnerships to act on climate need to include indigenous peoples as equal stakeholders, with them playing a key role in decision making and implementation of initiatives.

Their views should be taken into account and proper legal recognition given to them.

Land rights is another area. Handing back their territories is a step in the right direction.

For successful climate action, all hands should be on deck, indigenous people included.