World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
19 April – 22 April 2010 (Cochabamba, Bolivia)
An initiative of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Conference provided a forum to discuss the structural and systemic causes of climate change and propose substantive measures that facilitate the well-being of mankind in harmony with nature. In his message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that the UN seeks dialogue, inclusiveness and transparency in the global climate discourse, and referred to climate change as an ethical issue, with serious implications for the well-being of present and future generations, and requiring a global solution that takes into account the views and needs of all who share Mother Earth. CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf noted that the CBD has drawn the international community’s attention to the impacts of climate change on indigenous and local communities, and pointed to ecosystem-based adaptation for integrating the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services into an overall adaptation strategy; generating social, economic and cultural co-benefits; and drawing on traditional knowledge.
In the final declaration, the Conference participants propose to the peoples of the world “the recovery, revalorization, and strengthening of the knowledge, wisdom, and ancestral practices of Indigenous Peoples, which are affirmed in the thought and practices of ‘Living Well,’ recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, complementary and spiritual relationship.” The declaration further states that the challenge of stopping global warming can only be achieved through a profound shift in agricultural practices towards the sustainable model of production used by indigenous and rural farming peoples, as well as other ancestral models and practices that contribute to solving the problem of agriculture and food sovereignty. It also calls for full recognition of UNDRIP and its integration in climate change negotiations. It also condemns REDD and calls for direct transfers of economic and technological resources to pay for the restoration and maintenance of forests, in favor of the peoples and indigenous ancestral structures. Read the Conference press release on the final declaration … Read a Climate-L.org article on the Conference … Read an ECLAC press release … Download the statement of the CBD Executive Secretary [pdf] …
