Meeting prep: UNPFII 12

Twelfth Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
20-31 May 2013 (UN Headquarters, New York)

This session is marking a review year. The Forum will follow-up on its recommendations regarding health, education and culture; will hold a half-day discussion on the African region; will hold its comprehensive dialogue with UN agencies and funds, as well as with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; will discuss the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples; and will address issues related to the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The meeting will address a number of reports of relevance to TK, including: the report of the International Expert Group Meeting on “indigenous youth: identity, challenges and hope”; the report of the Inter-Agency Support Group Meeting on Indigenous Peoples; a study on resilience, traditional knowledge and capacity building for pastoralist communities in Africa; a study on engaging indigenous peoples more inclusively in the process of disaster risk reduction by respecting their linguistic and cultural practices; a consolidated report on extractive industries and their impact on indigenous peoples; and a study on how the knowledge, history and contemporary social circumstances of indigenous peoples are embedded in educational curricula. Visit the meeting’s website … View the meeting’s documents … Visit the meeting’s PaperSmart page …

 

Meeting review: CBA7

Seventh Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change
18-25 April 2013 (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

The CBA7 conference, organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Bangladesh Centre for Advance Studies (BCAS), brought together over 250 international practitioners, scientists, government and non-government policy and decision makers. CBA focuses on innovative ways in which local communities deal with climate change impacts and integrate scientific and local knowledge in planning local adaptation strategies. This year, the event focused on the latest approaches for mainstreaming community-based adaptation into international, national and local planning and processes. Conference delegates and online participants learnt about ways that people around the world are adapting to climate change in both rural and urban settings, and how governments can embed adaptation in all policy arenas. During the meeting, government representatives from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, The Gambia and Zanzibar formed a network to support their efforts to factor climate change into national development planning. The network will enable policymakers and planners in countries at risk from climate change to share information and collaborate in ways that can strengthen their policies and plans by ensuring they consider how climate change could affect development, and is open to all countries.

Visit the conference’s website, including links to session recordings and presentations … Read the IIED media release of 25 April … Read a SciDev.Net article of 29 April …

 

This week in review … Many Strong Voices develops adaptation project integrating scientific and traditional knowledge

Many Strong Voices Develops Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Project
Climate Change Policy and Practice, May 2013

OSLO, NORWAY: Many Strong Voices (MSV) is developing a project on ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change, aiming to reduce vulnerability to climate change by supporting an EbA methodology that integrates scientific and local/traditional knowledge. Case studies will be carried out in communities in Belize and Seychelles. Work carried out to date includes field visits in both countries to meet with potential partners and assess local conditions. This project seeks to formalize a methodology that combines evidence-based, scientific data with community knowledge and experiences, and empower communities to make informed choices on how to reduce vulnerability to climate change. Read the article … Visit the MSV website …

 

This week in review … Indigenous groups in the Amazon report climate change impacts

Indigenous tribes say effects of climate change already felt in Amazon rainforest
Mongabay.com, 30 April 2013

CALIFORNIA, USA: Tribal groups in the Amazon rainforest are already being affected by shifts wrought by climate change, reports a paper published last week in the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The paper, which is based on a collection of interviews conducted with indigenous leaders in the Brazilian Amazon, says that native populations are reporting shifts in precipitation patterns, humidity, river levels, temperature, and fire and agricultural cycles. These shifts, measured against celestial timing used by indigenous groups, are affecting traditional ways of life that date back thousands of years. “Indigenous groups who have lived in the Amazon for centuries, even millennia, are seeing signs that the climate is changing there,” said Steve Schwartzman, lead author of the study and director of tropical forest policy at Environmental Defense Fund. “Indigenous people are telling us rainfall and river levels have changed; the fires they’re dealing with are different now; and the climate systems they used to depend on for growing crops have become unpredictable.” In particular, indigenous interviewees mention concerns about drier conditions making it more difficult to control fires traditionally used for small-scale rotational agriculture. For generations, indigenous farmers set fires based on the position of stars in the sky – reflecting the time of year – with the expectation that the fires wouldn’t spread into humid forest areas. But drier conditions today mean that savanna fires can easily move into rainforests, damaging them and reducing their capacity to withstand drought and future burning. Read the article … Read the abstract of The natural and social history of the indigenous lands and protected areas corridor of the Xingu River basin, by Stephan Schwartzman et al …

 

Resource: UNU-IAS TK and climate science toolkit

Traditional Knowledge and Climate Science Toolkit
Williams, C; Galloway McLean, K; Raygorodetsky, G; Ramos-Castillo, A; and Barrett, B
United Nations University, 2013 | ISBN: 978-92-808-4544-0

Indigenous communities have long, multi-generational histories of interaction with the environment that include coping with variability, uncertainty and change. However, climate-induced impacts on their territories and communities are anticipated to be both early and severe due to their location in vulnerable habitats, including small islands, high altitude zones, desert margins and the circumpolar Arctic. Climate change poses a direct threat to many indigenous societies due to their continuing reliance upon resource-based livelihoods. At the same time, resilience in the face of a changing environment is embedded in indigenous knowledge and know-how, diversified resources and livelihoods, social institutions and networks, and cultural values and attitudes. Attentiveness to environmental variability, shifts and trends is an integral part of their ways of life. Community-based and local knowledge may offer valuable insights on climate-induced changes, and complement broader-scale scientific research with local precision and nuance. Indigenous societies have elaborated coping strategies to deal with unstable environments, and in some cases, are already actively adapting to early climate change impacts. While the transformations due to climate change are expected to be unprecedented, indigenous knowledge and coping strategies provide a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation measures.

This toolkit provides access to articles, videos and various other resources that will assist indigenous peoples, local communities, policy makers and other stakeholders in accessing research on climate change adaptation and mitigation. It is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. Download the toolkit [pdf] …

 

This week in review … UNESCO regional workshop focuses on indigenous knowledge on hydro-meteorological hazards and climate change adaptation

Asia-Pacific Workshop Focuses on Indigenous Knowledge on Hydro-meteorological Hazards and Climate Change Adaptation
Climate Change Policy and Practice, 22 April 2013

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Held from 18-21 April 2013 in Manila, Philippines, the regional workshop on “Integrating Local and Indigenous Knowledge related to Hydro-meteorological Hazards and Climate Change Adaptation with Scientific Knowledge: Lessons learned” concluded the second phase of the UNESCO project on “Strengthening Resilience of Coastal and Small Island Communities towards Hydro-meteorological Hazards and Climate Change Impacts. The workshop aimed to: share challenges, experiences, and lessons learned in the process of developing and piloting self-assessment tools for communities, as well as in developing educational and awareness raising materials; and discuss and finalize workplans of activities for the third phase of the project. Read the article … Read the UNESCO press release … Visit the project webpage …

 

This week in review … UN experts urge World Bank to adopt human rights standards

UN experts urge World Bank to adopt human rights standards on the eve of key gathering in Washington
OHCHR release, 18 April 2013

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: The UN Special Rapporteurs on extreme poverty, indigenous peoples, right to food, and foreign debt called on the World Bank to adopt human rights standards during the review of its environmental and social safeguard policies which apply to project finance. The review offers an important opportunity for broadening the scope of the World Bank’s safeguard policies in key areas related to human rights such as disability, gender, labor, land tenure, and the rights of indigenous peoples. The first consultation period concluded on 21 April, and a first draft of the revised policies is expected to be released for public comment in the next few months. For the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya “this review is an opportunity for the World Bank to heed the call of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which provides that States, intergovernmental organizations, and UN specialized agencies, including the World Bank, shall promote respect for full application and realization of, its provisions.”“World Bank financed large-scale development projects often have an impact on land used by small-scale farmers, negatively affecting their right to food,” said the Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter. In his view, “the updated safeguard policies must ensure that the voice of affected communities is more effectively heard, through inclusive and participatory impact assessments and through effective accountability mechanisms that provide effective remedies for any harm caused.” Read the release …

 

Resource: Book on climate change and indigenous peoples

Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: the Search for Legal Remedies
Randall S. Abate and Elizabeth Ann Kronk (eds)
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013 | ISBN: 978 1 78100 179 0

The book examines climate change through an indigenous perspective in North and South America, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand, Asia and Africa. The contributors are either practicing lawyers or law professors. They explain the problems faced by indigenous populations and break down attempts to devise legal, workable solutions. Chapters outline ways indigenous populations can navigate climate change law, and provide a review of national-level successes and international-level shortcomings, focusing on both mitigation and adaptation-related law. Part I provides the context and principles; and Part II includes perspectives on international organizations and case studies from several regions of the world. Further information … Read the University of Kansas press release …