The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has published a new policy paper, “Peoples and the Planet: Self-Governance, Land Rights, and Climate Justice,” which emphasises how the destruction of land and ecosystems poses a fundamental threat to the cultural survival, political participation, and collective rights of unrepresented nations and peoples.
Drawing from the lived experience of UNPO members, the report demonstrates that environmental degradation and land dispossession are not merely ecological challenges, but often function as deliberate strategies aimed at eroding communities’ ability to maintain their identity, safeguard traditional practices, and exercise their right to self-determination. This paper draws a vital connection between secure access to ancestral territories, meaningful participation in environmental decision-making, and the protection of political and cultural rights.
Environmental Rights as a Path to Self-Determination
The environment is not just a resource, it is a foundation for political agency, cultural continuity, and economic survival. For many unrepresented peoples, land, water, and natural resources are central to sustaining their livelihoods, exercising collective rights, and shaping their futures. This paper argues that when access to land is denied or ecosystems are degraded, the right to self-determination is gravely compromised. Environmental harm, through extractive industries, militarisation, climate change, or exclusion from decision-making, weakens the ability of communities to govern their territories, sustain local economies, and defend their political autonomy.
This paper outlines how these environmental threats are manifesting across a range of contexts, illustrated through case-studies from UNPO members:
- Kabylia, where wildfires, water diversion, and deforestation are weaponised by the Algerian state, undermining local agriculture and traditional governance, while accelerating cultural erasure.
- Western Togoland, where climate change and coastal erosion have submerged ancestral lands, while deforestation and mining worsen displacement and marginalisation.
- South Moluccas, where extractive industries and illegal logging, often backed by the military, are destroying ecosystems and traditional livelihoods.
- Awhazi Arabs, who face aggressive resource extraction, dam construction, and water diversion, transforming a once-thriving ecosystem into a site of ecological collapse, with repression silencing those who resist.
In all these cases, environmental degradation is closely linked to political marginalisation and cultural erasure. The analysis underscores that when unrepresented communities are excluded from environmental governance and decision-making over their ancestral lands, their capacity to sustain themselves and exercise collective rights is directly threatened.
Global trends indicate that environmental harm disproportionately affects Indigenous and minority communities, with resource extraction, pollution, and climate change accelerating ecological degradation in their territories. These processes often unfold over time, compounding historical injustices and undermining traditional knowledge systems vital for sustainable land stewardship.
The paper also highlights how geopolitical shifts in climate governance increasingly place unrepresented peoples at risk. Climate conferences hosted by states with poor human rights records and vested fossil fuel interests frequently exclude unrepresented voices. Fragile international agreements and the global race for critical minerals increase extractive pressure on their lands, worsening environmental harm and social conflict. This reveals that climate governance is deeply tied to the collective rights of peoples, often reinforcing inequalities and limiting meaningful political participation.
Environmental Degradation as a Tool of Control
The paper also shows that environmental degradation is not merely a byproduct of poor governance, but a deliberate tactic employed by states to consolidate control and suppress identities. Policies that divert water, promote monocultures, allow unchecked mining, or neglect disaster prevention often serve broader political objectives of marginalisation and dispossession.
These strategies sever communities’ connection to their lands, erode social cohesion, and undermine claims to self-determination. Environmental harm thus becomes inseparable from political domination, with the defence of land and ecosystems emerging as a form of resistance and an assertion of unrepresented people’s rights.
UNPO’s Call to Action
The policy paper is part of UNPO’s ‘Sustainable Empowerment’ campaign and the 2025 webinar series, ‘Peoples’ Rights, Peoples’ Future – The Foundation of Our Shared Future’, which highlights the links between environmental damage and the right to self-determination.
UNPO urges governments, regional bodies, and the international community to:
- Recognise and protect environmental self-determination as a fundamental right;
- Integrate Indigenous ecological knowledge into national and global environmental policy;
- End the criminalisation of environmental and Indigenous rights defenders;
- Ensure Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for all development and extractive projects;
- Support transnational solidarity and advocacy for environmental justice as a shared global responsibility.
