Below is an article written by UNPO:

 
Brussels, 13 October 2008 – The European Parliament’s Sub Committee on Human Rights, chaired by Ms. Hélène Flautre MEP, met today to discuss a variety of topics including the role of the European Union (EU) in the United Nations Human Rights Council and the conclusion of a recent EU Interim Trade Agreement with Turkmenistan.  However, the focus of the afternoon session dwelt on an exchange of views with Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).  

Opening this discussion, Ms. Flautre remarked that the UNPFII had “worked very hard and consistently” on the matter of climate change and the effects of mitigation policies on indigenous peoples the world over.  Ms. Flautre went on to state that the European Parliament for its part was “also working hard on these issues” and noted the presence at the meeting of members of the Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change as an indication of the importance the European Parliament attached to the issue.  Much still needed to done however, and better training for those implementing European Commission projects was just one such point.

 
Ms. Romana Jordan Cizelj MEP, representative of the Temporary Committee on Climate Change took the floor briefly to reiterate the scientific basis for climate change.  She  remarked that it was significant that it had been indigenous people in Canada who had been among the first to bring the world’s attention to the affects of climate change.  Returning to present events, Ms. Jordan Cizelj stressed that sustainable development must be closely tied to human rights.  The protection of water, food security, harvesting, and health were all fundamental human rights, Ms. Jordan Cizelj stated.

A holistic approach to meeting the problems of climate change was of the utmost importance Ms. Jordan Cizelj claimed.  Without such an approach, indigenous people would be adversely affected by the mitigation measures being pursued by the more developed Western, countries such as biofuels, dam building, or geothermal energy exploitation.  The identity of indigenous peoples should therefore be protected, and their knowledge recognized and used to establish observation and early warning systems in the fight against climate change.  Such measures should become part of the national and international policies being developed to mitigate against the effects of climate change Ms. Jordan Cizelj concluded.

Beginning her speech, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz thanked the Committee for the opportunity to provide an update on the situation of climate change, as it affected indigenous peoples.  One of the key priorities Ms. Tauli-Corpuz  identified in the coming months was a need to define what was meant when mention was made of ‘emissions’.  There had to be some threshold by which the emissions generated by indigenous peoples as a consequence of pursuing their economic and social rights should be differentiated from the “luxury” emissions associated with more developed countries. 

The Committee was also informed by Ms. Tauli-Corpuz of the costs that were increasingly being associated with climate change mitigation practices.  Biofuel-led land-grabs in Brazil, uranium mining in India, and forest sequestration projects in Uganda’s Mount Elgon region were pushing indigenous peoples from their lands.  Each instance demonstrated the need to bring the human dimension to the fore when international actors were discussing climate change mitigation.

Also attending the Committee were representatives of Brazil’s north-eastern indigenous inhabitants, who provided the Committee with firsthand accounts of the effects of climate change on indigenous inhabitants.  On behalf of the group, Ms. Yakuy Tupinambá spoke of the unpredictability of floods and droughts and of a land “turning red under the heat of the sun”.   There was a need for indigenous voices to be heard in international climate change talks Ms. Tupinambá, elaborated, because the world was “at war with itself…fighting nature” and everyone was feeling the effects as a result.

The floor was subsequently opened to questions with Mr. Roger Helmer MEP opening the discussion by raising doubts about the validity of the climate change argument, and putting forward his view that the changes underway were less about carbon emissions and more about to the policy responses that had been adopted in response to this phenomenon.

Answering a question from the Committee, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz expressed agreement that the solutions to climate change needed careful review because some were undoubtedly faulty.  The use of forests for carbon sequestration and trading was one example where indigenous peoples’ rights could be undermined if proper oversight was not maintained.  Ms. Tupinambá supported this view, citing what she saw as an ongoing ‘colonial‘ outlook in Brazil that was most evident in the exploitation of the country’s natural resources in so-called “bio-piracy”.

In the concluding discussions of the Committee, Ms. Flautre was interested to know how climate change was directly affecting the lives of people such as those living in Brazil’s north-eastern provinces.  Ms. Tupinambá related that people were becoming increasingly reliant on using chemicals in food production or were government hunger alleviation programs.  The latter were rarely sufficient and were in fact leading to conflicts within and between families in the affected communities.  It was this situation which was spurring her people into action in a desire “to save what remains” Ms. Tupinambá concluded.

Note:

UNPO will be initiating a campaign entitled ‘Earth, Exploitation, and Survival’ in the coming weeks which will be examining the issues surrounding indigenous peoples and natural resource exploitation.  The UNPO website will feature monthly articles detailing case studies from across four continents and culminating on 22 April 2009 - Earth Day.