Climate mitigation measures threaten tribes
Published: 23 November 2009
Author: Rose Gamble
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The Penan are just one of many tribes affected by climate change, Borneo, Malaysia. © Robin Hanbury-Tenison/ Survival
Survival International, the organisation supporting tribal peoples worldwide, has released a report today revealing attempts to prevent climate change are as - or even more - damaging to indigenous people than global warming itself.
The report, "The most inconvenient truth of all: climate change and indigenous people", sets out four key mitigation measures that threaten tribal people: biofuels, hydro-electric power, forest conservation and carbon offsetting. In the language of the fast-approaching Copenhagen summit, they’re carbon-cutting buzzwords – automatically enshrined in a green halo. For indigenous peoples, they are devastating.
As usual, where money and vast profits are at stake, the world’s indigenous people are being shamefully swept aside
The report highlights the plight of the Guarani, Brazil’s biggest tribe, who are losing their homes, land and food supplies in the Amazon rainforest as the country expands its production of sugar cane – converted into ethanol to meet energy demands.
Biofuels are promoted as an alternative source of green energy to
fossil fuels. Yet if their expansion continues as planned, millions of
indigenous people worldwide stand to lose their land and livelihoods.
“Biofuels are an effective weapon in the fight against global warming,” Brazil’s President Lula said at the Fifth Summit of the Americas earlier this year. “Our society demands renewable, clean, inexpensive fuels. The production of sugar cane ethanol increases energy security.”
Meanwhile, the Guarani are forced to live on tiny areas of land surrounding the sugar cane plantations, unable to grow enough food to feed their families. Sugar cane production is also polluting rivers and killing fish, and ethanol manufacture is encouraging alcoholism.
Borneo and Kenya's tribes
In Borneo, Malaysia’s government promoted the construction of the Bakun dam as a source of "green energy" and as part of the country’s effort to stop climate change. The dam, due to be completed next year, will flood 700 sq km of surrounding land, displacing over 10,000 indigenous people.
Likewise, an international appeal to conserve Kenya’s Mau forest, launched by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, cited as an attempt to reverse the effects of global warming, has seen him order the eviction of the Ogiek tribe. The tribe has been resident in the forest for thousands of years. According to the Survival report, Kenya’s government has repeatedly tried to evict the Ogiek in the past, usually on the misplaced pretext that they are destroying the forest.
“This report highlights ‘the most inconvenient truth of all’ – that the world’s tribal people, who have done the least to cause climate change and are most affected by it, are now having their rights violated and land devastated in the name of attempts to stop it,” said Survival Director, Stephen Corry.
Take action
- Write a letter in support of the Guarani, Ogiek and Penan
- Get Bruce Parry's BBC series, Tribe
- Ray Mears on surviving climate change
“Hiding behind the global push to prevent climate change, governments and companies are mounting a massive land grab. As usual, where money and vast profits are at stake, the world’s indigenous people are being shamefully swept aside.”
The report calls for tribal people to be fully involved in decisions that affect them concerning climate change mitigation measures, and for their land ownership rights to be upheld.
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