By Rick Kearns, Today correspondent

Story Published: Feb 28, 2010


To “defeat the resistance of the contaminating countries” was the objective of indigenous leaders from 13 Latin American countries who prepared a plan of action recently for the upcoming Climate Change Summit in Mexico.

The “Second Latin American Summit on Climate Change and its Impact on Indigenous Peoples” convened in Lima, Peru Jan. 25 and then on Feb. 12 to plan for the larger gathering.

Native representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela drafted a declaration and plan of action for the summit. Hosting the meetings were members of the Continental Link of Indigenous Women-South America region, the Indigenous Council of Central America (CICA) and the Indigenous Cultures Center of Peru (CHIRAPAQ).

“Latin America is known for bringing a variety of voices to the summits, there are many positions and this makes the process even slower,” said Hortencio Hidalgo, an Aymara leader from Chile.

“The rest of the countries say they no longer have patience for our region, and because of that we must unite to have a larger and stronger influence.”

Towards that effort, the hundreds of participants reviewed and analyzed the results of last years UN Climate Change Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Work groups, assisted by a variety of consultants, drafted plans that addressed issues of food security and nutrition, gender, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, and an action plan and policies.

Donald Rojas, CICA president, noted that their plans are to “guarantee a unified proposal from all of the networks, to influence governments to take on these approaches, to design a local community strategy for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.”

They also, “… must guarantee food security and create an indigenous platform for the Mexico summit.”

The document that came out of the meetings was titled “The Lima Declaration: For the Life of the Mother Nature and Humankind,” which articulated reasons for indigenous involvement and plans for implementation. The Declaration started with a list of indigenous rights to property – intellectual and otherwise – and to natural resources, among other items.

“Recognizing that we the indigenous peoples have the inherent right to sovereignty, free determination and autonomy, with the clear ability to decide on political, social, cultural and environmental policies that restores our state of ‘good living’ as peoples and that recognizes our individual and collective rights to the lands, territories and natural resources and to biodiversity and intellectual property.”

The fourth and fifth paragraphs of the Declaration assert that indigenous peoples have been disproportionately affected by the various effects of climate change, especially global warming. These effects extend to many areas of indigenous life.

“… the impact of climate change brings as a consequence the crisis of food insecurity, diseases, the loss of traditional knowledge and practices, the weakening of our own structures of organization and government, breaking the balance of ecological, socio-economic and spiritual equilibrium.”

Due to these factors and others, the indigenous leaders expressed concern over their exclusion from the decision making process in the summits. They noted that the preamble to the Kyoto Protocol claimed that the agreements “needed the active role of civil society,” but that the protocol drafters “did not consider the participation of indigenous peoples in the discussions, planning sessions and implementation of actions that would allow for the strengthening of our own systems and ancestral strategies.”

In their Actions and Strategies sections the indigenous leaders presented plans to develop alliances with non-governmental organizations that are fighting against the causes and effects of climate change, as well as with governments in the region to seek consensus, strategies and solutions based on indigenous knowledge.

They also seek “the creation of a group of climate change experts that will include representatives of the indigenous peoples who will be responsible for analyzing the impacts of climate change on Native peoples and the monitoring of the implementation of the policies of the Climate Change Accord.”

The Lima Declaration and plan, among other things, included a demand for further application of the UN Declaration on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the proceedings. They also made a broader appeal to the international community regarding “extractive industries” such as oil, petrochemical and mining operations.

“To put out a call to create actions of solidarity for the mobilization of indigenous peoples against extractive industries. … considering the harmful effects they have had on the community and in particular on the health of our women, children and elders.”

Officials have not yet announced the date for the Mexico summit.

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