Indigenous people must be included in climate change talks, say campaigners

Communities most at risk from climate change are least likely to be represented at UN summit in Poznan, says report
Annie Kelly
guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 20 2008 11.17 GMT

UN climate change talks are excluding communities who will suffer the most from changing weather patterns, according to a report released today.
The report, released by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), says that the voice of indigenous and minority communities must be formally recognised in the climate change talks that begin in Poznan, Poland, on December 1.
MRG said that "time is running out" for indigenous communities to get countries to acknowledge that they should be included in the Copenhagen negotiations in 2009 when a new climate deal is expected to be agreed.
Unlike the international Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the multilateral environmental treaty signed by 192 states, does not mention the impact of climate change on indigenous or minority communities.
Indigenous people around the world are often at the frontline of climate change, living in ecologically sensitive areas and reliant on natural resource for survival. Campaigners say that the impact of climate change already threatens many of these communities.
Arctic Inuit people have seen their land disappear as the polar ice caps melt, farmers in East Africa are facing severe food shortages due to persistent drought, and Miskito tribes in Nicaragua are seeing their livelihoods threatened by unseasonal flooding.
"Governments have a natural resistance to focusing on particular groups in broad international negotiation, but the reality is that indigenous communities will suffer the most," said Mark Lattimer, executive director at MRG.
Political and social discrimination faced by many indigenous communities in their own countries means that not only are they the hardest hit, but are also least likely to benefit from the distribution of relief aid in climate-related disasters, according to MRG.
"We saw this in India when the Dalit community, who were the most affected by the recent flooding in Bihar, were turned away from relief aid distribution lines and left without any assistance," said Lattimer. "We can't rely on national governments to represent the voices of people that they themselves sideline and ignore."
The report calls for a formal mechanism to be included at the Poznan talks, which would enable indigenous and minority communities to participate in the UNFCCC process. It wants a working group to be established to make formal recommendations, which countries would be obliged to consider.
"The irony is that indigenous communities are already facing the fall-out from climate change, so their input in the international debate could be of immense use in developing adaptation and mitigation strategies on climate change," said Lattimer.
MRG acknowledges that the UNFCCC has made some steps to recognise the role that indigenous communities can play in the climate change debate. In its 2007 Bali Action Plan, it recognised the needs of local and indigenous communities must be addressed when actions are taken to reduce emissions from deforestation and soil degradation.
The UNFCCC insists that indigenous and minority groups do have a voice within the international climate change process and have been given an official "constituency" status along with other civil society groups. "Indigenous peoples organisations are entitled to attend official proceedings, to apply for a slot for a side event and to request for individual meetings with chairs of the negotiation bodies," said a UNFCCC spokesperson.