Indigenous Peoples Across the Globe Fight for their Rights to Control their Land
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by Mari Villaluna/Indigenous Peoples Media Project I spent five months of my life walking and praying for Mother Earth. Praying that people around the earth will start to take care of our home in a way that our ancestors knew. Praying that my descendants will be able to see Jean Charles Island in southeastern Louisiana, which is threatened by land loss and climate change. When the Longest Walk 2 walked through the United Houma Nation Terrorrity in southeastern Louisiana, we walked through Jean Charles Island. We were told that in one generation this island that the Houmas live upon will not be here anymore due to climate change, and land loss. While being eaten up by insects, I looked over at my praying partner and said, “Imagine one day, our descendants won’t see this land where we are walking on. That’s why we are walking to save the lands we have left.” This memory echoed in my mind when PNN assigned me to a story on the UN Conference on Climate Change that is being held in Pozan, Poland. I remembered the Houmas and thier struggle to physically keep their land. I remembered how Hurricane Katrina was at a category 3 and then due to climate change it rose. I remember living in the east coast and how sometimes there would be very warm winter days. Everyone would say how beautiful day was, but all I could think about how climate change played a role in the abnormality of a east coast winter. I contacted a fellow longest walker named Marek Nowocien, who is Polish and attending the conference and doing media around it. He mentioned how there was over 10,000 people there, which includes governmental, NGO (non-profit), and Indigenous peoples from all over the world in attendance. Many organizations are present to speak about the human rights of Indigenous peoples to the land as it ties into the destruction of Mother Earth. Many times when the environment is talked about, Indigenous peoples are systemically left out of the process. This conference was no different, in that Indigenous peoples once again challenged values of the environmental community (I couldn’t think of a better word). Global Forest Coalition, The Wilderness Society, World Rainforest Movement, Global Justice Ecology Project, Via Campesina, the International Youth Delegation and the STOP GE Trees Campaign united as Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples to redefine what the United Nations/Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) considers a forest. As of right now, the UN views corporate industrial tree plantations as forests. In a press release by the above groups, they stated “Plantations are not forests. Forests are diverse ecosystems and plantations are void of biodiversity. The UN definition endangers Indigenous Peoples, forest dependent people, peasants, small farmers, biodiversity and exacerbates climate change.” The UN that is talking about climate change is also the same one helping to promote it by leaving this definition the way it is. These groups are challenging the UN to change the definition of forests so it recognizes the difference between native forests versus plantations. Ana Filippini from World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay) stated, “The conversion of native forests to plantations is bad for biodiversity, people and the climate. Human rights, especially women's rights, are being violated where there are plantations, and they should not be defined as forests.” These are the changes to the definition that the groups are proposing: Forests are defined as 'a terrestrial ecosystem generated and maintained primarily through natural and ecological and evolutionary processes that are home to most of the world's biodiversity'. Plantations are defined as a crop of trees planted and regularly harvested by humans that do not provide habitat for biodiversity. "The definition of forests under REDD is utterly ridiculous", stated Sandy Gauntlett, a Maori indigenous rights activist from New Zealand, and representative of Global Forest Coalition. "It leaves wide open the ability of countries to destroy their natural forests and replace them with industrial tree plantations-which destroys wildlife habitat and displaces indigenous and forest dependent communities. New Zealand is an example of the disaster of tree plantations-and now we are in the process of developing genetically engineered trees for plantations", he continued. All these groups agree that, “"If it is not resolved, and REDD applies this definition of forests, the global community could miss the chance of avoiding dangerous climate change and the 1.6 billion people who depend on forests for there survival will continue to be negatively affected." Dangerous climate change can be avoided by the simply changing of a definition of a forest. I started to think about the United Houma Nation and how hurricane after hurricane their land is being lost. I remember how every member of that nation used the words climate change and land loss over and over again. I remember the sad look upon their faces as they talked about losing their land and how climate change is at fault for that. I thought about all the corporations, governments, and international organizations are at fault for climate change. With just one simple definition of a forest, many global indigenous peoples could still keep their Nations alive with their traditions and way of life. To get involved, please contact: Orin Langelle, Global Forest Coalition media coordinator +48 696 723 046 |