Indigenous Voices should be at the forefront of the Climate Conversation

James Dimas

June 15, 2022

1→ Indigenous Wisdom

Indigenous wisdom refers to the traditional knowledge that Indigenous people have about the land, ocean and sky and how to protect nature. This wisdom focuses on interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples and the land and the multitude of positive impacts on ecosystem health and biodiversity.

2→ The Numbers

Roughly 28% of the global land is owned, used or managed by Indigenous people. Recognising and protecting Indigenous peoples' land rights is essential to meeting climate goals as their traditional ecological wisdom promotes sustainable land management and supports climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

3→ Biodiversity

Biodiversity and ecological health play an important role in forest carbon storage. The rate of deforestation in the places where Indigenous people securely hold land is substantially lower than their counterparts. This is important because it shows how Indigenous wisdom has local and regional benefits to ecosystem health and global benefits to climate change.

4→ Resource Management

Indigenous natural resource management techniques are critical to protecting nature and biodiversity.

Aboriginal fire management is being used as part of the solution to bushfires; traditional marine conservation practices like the utilisation of Mangroves in Tuvalu as both have helped to boost fish stocks in the Pacific and acted as a preventative measure to climate displacement.

Figure 1.0 shows the documentation from NGO, Tuvalu overview, of a mangrove planation site in Funafala. Conveying the morphological changes and the chronology that corresponds to the growth of mangrove seedlings. The main purpose behind this environmental measure is preventative however the utilisation of nature by indigenous peoples further see biodiversity conservation, the continuation of the traditional life and culture of the Tuvalu people, achieving intergenerational equity.

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5→ Resource Management

The foundation of climate and biodiversity protection lies in Indigenous land rights.

Despite being persecuted, threatened, and facing violence, Indigenous communities have been at the forefront, leading the fight against extractivism and the climate emergency.

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Summary:

Indigenous peoples have been caring for our environment for thousands of years, their interconnectedness to the land has and still does have a multitude of positive impacts on ecosystem health and biodiversity. Yet, Indigenous peoples of the world often are excluded or treated as secondary in the climate change conversation. Their voices should be at the forefront.

Our collective response to combat climate change must not only address the climate impacts, but also deliver systemic transformation that centers Indigenous justice in order to address the climate crisis.