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Indigenous communities, climate change and hypocrisy
There are three main causes of the marginalization and exclusion of indigenous communities: globalization, neocolonialism and neoextractivism.
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Dance on the water: Members of a local indigenous community in Sentani, Papua perform Isosolo dance on July 5 during the opening of the 2023 Sentani Lake Festival in Khalkote area in Jayapura. (Antara/Ardiles Leloltery)
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ndigenous communities face a sadly ironic fate concerning climate change, contributing little to greenhouse gas emissions while suffering the worst impacts of global warming, which the United Nations has even labeled “global boiling”.
A deep connection and dependence on nature, especially forests, place these communities in severe danger. Climate change exacerbates difficulties that indigenous people have faced for centuries, including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination and poverty.
In a press release commemorating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Aug. 9, UN Secretary-General António Guterres affirmed the serious challenges faced by indigenous communities. Therefore, he emphasizes the importance of involving indigenous communities, especially the youth, in decision-making.
In fact, this isn't the first time the importance of such global commitments has been emphasized. Over the past 30 years, the rights of indigenous communities have been increasingly recognized through the adoption of various international instruments, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007 and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2016, among others.
The existence of indigenous communities is crucial because their population of 476 million is spread across more than 90 countries, according to the World Bank in 2022. The values that these communities uphold serve as examples of good practices for nature preservation, including climate change mitigation.
However, even as the global promotion of the importance of indigenous protection has increased in the last three decades, the fate of these entities has worsened.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2023 reported that during the past 40 years, in line with the rise in the global average temperature by 1.7 degrees per century, the highest increase in the earth’s average temperature in history, indigenous communities have faced doubled oppression. The extraction of natural resources displaces and impoverishes them while the temperature increase destroys the environment around them, making it increasingly. Difficult for them to sustain their livelihoods.
