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View all search resultsGCF to involve indigenous groups in climate fight
An environmental network of governors across the world concluded its four-day annual meeting in East Kalimantan’s capital of Balikpapan on Thursday, agreeing to forge close cooperation with indigenous communities as part of the grouping’s deforestation reduction efforts
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Participants of the Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force (GCF) Forum in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, talk on the sidelines of their meeting on Sept. 27. (JP/N. Adri)
A
n environmental network of governors across the world concluded its four-day annual meeting in East Kalimantan’s capital of Balikpapan on Thursday, agreeing to forge close cooperation with indigenous communities as part of the grouping’s deforestation reduction efforts.
This year’s meeting of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF) is somewhat historical for the grouping because for the first time since its establishment in 2009, it puts the protection of indigenous peoples as a pivotal pillar in meeting the target of having each member reduce deforestation by 80 percent by 2020.
The pledge is included in the Balikpapan Statement, the final outcome produced in the meeting of the GFC, an alliance of 38 states and provinces across the world, as seen in the document distributed by the organizer.
Indigenous group leaders from countries attending the conference, including Indonesian representatives from the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), welcomed the pledge as an important step to expand efforts by subnational administrations to fight against climate change.
“We are ready to support it in order to ensure that the pledges of governors in this forum do not result in a lack of implementation,” AMAN secretary-general Rukka Sombolingi told the conference on Thursday.
In its move to recognize the role of indigenous peoples and to lay out actions that support them, the GCF referred to a study carried out by the Earth Innovation Institute in 2014 that shows indigenous communities across the globe are forest custodians that are critical in fighting climate change.
Indigenous groups in Indonesia, however, face various problems, ranging from the convoluted process of acknowledgment of their status to land conflicts with either local administrations or companies.
