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Climate Change and Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples Global Landscapes Forum, December 5, 2015

Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

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Page 1: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Climate Change and Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Global Landscapes Forum, December 5, 2015

Page 2: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-

being of himself & of his family…including food”

-- Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Health, Food and Well-Being are Human Rights

Page 3: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Deschutes River Oregon, Traditional Fishing, June 2007

“…In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.”

-- Article 1 in Common, International Covenants

on Civil and Political Rights and on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Page 4: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

The Treaty Right to Food

“The Privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice upon the lands the rives and the lakes including in the territory ceded, is guaranteed to the Indians”

-- 1837 US Treaty with the Chippewa Nation

Page 5: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

History is Made: the UN General Assembly Adopts the Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples, September 2007

New York September 13th, 2007

Geneva, 1977

Page 6: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Lands, Territories and Resources

“Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they

have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired…”

--- Article 26, para 1.

Page 7: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Spiritual Relationship with Traditional Lands and Resources

“Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen

their distinctive spiritual relationship with their

traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands,

territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this

regard.” -- Article 25

)

Page 8: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Subsistence Rights and Traditional Economies

“Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development, and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities.” -- Article 20, paragraph 1

Page 9: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Environmental Protection and Productive Capacity of Lands

Indigenous peoples have the right to the

conservation and protection of the

environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories

and resources… -- Article 29, para. 1

Page 10: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Article 32: FPIC and Development “States shall consult and

cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of their mineral, water or other resources.”

In 2008, the Treaty Chiefs of Alberta Canada called for a

Moratorium on expansion of Tar Sands development

Page 11: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Traditional Knowledge: Article 31

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora…

Page 12: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

The Right to Participate in Decision-Making

“Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own Indigenous decision-making institutions.” -- Article 18 Chief Wilton Littlechild, Rapporteur

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2007

Page 13: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

How is Climate Change affecting us?

“Climate change constitutes the single most important threat to food security in the future” -- UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food

Olivier de Schutter report to the UN Human Rights Council, March 2009

--- “

Page 14: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Extreme Weather Events

The central part of the US is the only place on Earth that lies directly in between an Arctic land

mass and a tropical ocean

Moore Oklahoma, May 2013

Page 15: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Montana

The Forests are Drying and Burning

British Columbia, CanadaCalifornia USABritish Columbia Canada

Page 16: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Melting Arctic Ice Affecting Native Peoples and their Food Sources

Alaska

Page 17: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Once, more than a million spring-run Chinook lived in the waters of the Central Valley in California. In 2010 there were less than 10,000, a decline of 99%. Researchers at UC Davis predicted the

effect of climate change on the Chinook salmon. In all the scenarios, even the hopeful ones, spring run Chinook failed to

survive until 2099.

Vital Food Plants & Animals Threatened

Page 18: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Changing weather patterns include dramatic decreases in summer rainfall. Growing capacity of corn is decreasing dramatically in many regions of

Mexico and the US

Page 19: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

UNFCCC COP 21: Indigenous Peoples continue to call for a

Strong, Rights-Based Outcome • Full participation in decisions and

programs that affect us • Protection for lifeways, lands &

tenure (OP 36) and resources • Binding commitments by States

to cap global temperature rise, significantly reduce GGE’s

• FPIC, recognition of Traditional • Knowledge in mitigation & adaptation programs

March for Indigenous Peoples Rights, COP15,

Copenhagen, 2009

Page 20: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

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Indigenous Traditional Knowledge-Based Responses to Climate Change

“Tule marshes absorb more than ten times more carbon than a pine forest”

-- Dr. William Carmen (Yaqui) Wildlife Biologist

Page 21: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Solutions and Responses within our Nations

Seed sharing and trading, 2nd International Corn Conference, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, September, 2014

Page 22: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Elders Teaching Survival Skills

Gathering Tsass, Ya Ne Dah Ah Tribal School, Chickaloon Native Village Alaska

Page 23: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Indigenous Peoples Salmon Gathering, Klamath River, California, June 2013: Restoring Traditional Knowledge and

“Taking Down the Dams”

Page 24: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

“Coal is the Liver of Mother Earth. It has to stay in

the ground so she can be healthy.”

-- Dine elder Roberta

Blackgoat

Page 25: Climate change and land rights of Indigenous peoples

Cheoque Utesia, Thank you very much