Indigenous Prospective on Forest and Climat Change

Yesterday (10th of December) we attended a Non-Governmental Discussion (side event) given by three spokesman for the Indigenous People all over the world. One of them was from Kenya, another one from Canada (The Mohawk Indians) and the third one was from Panama.
They each had it about their experiences in their native countries. The guide line of each of the speakers was that the rights of the Indigenous People were beeing neglected and that they were excluded of participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Afterwards there was time to ask the speakers a few questions. Some of them were relevant, others not that relevant.

Speaker One: Kenya (The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee/IPACC)
The problems that he mentioned were that the money for the REDD progamme (mentioned earlier on the blog) does not reach its destination (the Indigenous People) and that the interest of foreign countries in the forests is increasing. This last mentioned item may lead to the forced moving of the people that inhabit the forests. Especially for them who's rights are not clear, i.e. Convention 169 is not aggreed in every country around the world and this assures the rights of the Indigenous People.
But there was also a positive side on this story, with the REDD programme the "Department of Forestry" is excluded in the Payment for Ecological Services (PES) and this will aswell lower the corruption payment as it is a step in the right way to make sure the money ends up at its intended destination. http://www.ipacc.org.ze

Speaker Two: Canada (Mohawk Indians)
There were three major impacts on the Indigenous People mentioned: Actions which are hurting the rights and properties of the Indigenous People, Impacts that are actually caused by Global Climate Change and The so called "solutions" that were made to face the former mentioned impacts but which are in his eyes far to technical and made without respect for the Indigenous People.
The main problem about REDD is that there will be no support for Indigenous People if their rights are not accepted by not only the local government but also by the "internation government".
He also explained that he sees risks in the making of a carbon credit market, thus shifting the responsibility from developed countries (polluters) to the developing countries.

Speaker three: Panama (Spokesman for the Indigenous People of Panama)
Basically the global climate protocols, such ass the Kyoto Protocol, do not adress the Indigenous People at all. These are all mentioning the areas where they live, but were all made without consulting them.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People declaration is not within the convention, it is just a declaration. The major problem with this is that it is just a declaration, thus not binding and not obligatory. So in fact the UNFCCC is a inter-governmental proces wich decides over the resources and therefore the lives of the Indigenous People.


Steffen Eberle and Mathias Wackenier