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Leveraging the power of Indigenous Peoples right to Self-determination and FPIC in climate-related work: when false climate solutions violate Indigenous rights

  • Blue Zone, Zone B7, Building 88, 2nd Floor (map)

Organisation

Cultural Survival

Description

Nature-based and net-zero solutions are again at the forefront of solutions offered by governments and business to deal with the climate crisis. These solutions include the creation of carbon market schemes and green energy production projects. We all know that nature-based solutions and net-zero solutions are false solutions, because they fail to address emissions reductions at source; instead they permit the destruction of ecosystems in one place for the promise of restoring ecosystems in another place. There are many documented cases of so-called climate solutions infringing on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In many cases, carbon market initiatives involve the establishment of protected areas that restrict Indigenous Peoples' access to their ancestral lands, waters, territories and resources. Most of the time, this is done without obtaining their Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Yet, Indigenous peoples’ survival directly depends on the unrestricted access to their lands and they provide invaluable ecosystem services that allow ecosystems to thrive. Although conserved lands are presented as empty and untouched, actually, they are intensively managed landscapes. The loss of human managers with a multigenerational relationship to the land is a guarantee of ecosystem change.

Cultural Survival and partners developed an FPIC guide to support Indigenous Peoples right to self-determination worldwide. As we continue to witness an onslaught of violations of Indigenous territories in the name of conservation, the just transition, and extractive industries, exercising the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent remains one of the most powerful tools to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. At this session, Indigenous leaders will share experiences of violations of Indigenous rights and will present a new FPIC guidebook to support Indigenous Peoples self determination.

Speakers

Bryan Bixcul (Maya-Tz’utujil) - Executive Coordinator, Cultural Survival - moderator

Galina Angarova (Buryat) - Executive Director, Cultural Survival; Chair of the Executive Committee, the SIRGE Coalition - FPIC in the international legal framework and presentation of FPIC guide

Devkumar Sunuwar (Koits-Sunuwar) - Community Media Program Coordinator, Cultural Survival - hydro power

Representative from Brazil to speak about carbon credits schemes

Representative from Kenya to speak about green energy power

Language

EN - SP

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8 December

Rooted Wisdom, Rising Voices: Indigenous Youth Leading Climate Action

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Indigenous Peoples fisheries and the impacts of climate change