Global Goals Critical for Indigenous Peoples at the Frontlines of Climate Change

Rituraj Phukan

For the second year in a row, the world is no longer making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Multiple and overlapping health and security crises have led to a reversal in SDG progress. This is a major setback, especially considering that before the pandemic, over the period 2015–2019, the world was progressing on the SDGs, albeit at a slow rate to reach the 2030 deadline, with poorer countries making greater gains than rich countries.

Peace, diplomacy, and international cooperation are fundamental conditions for the world to progress on the SDGs towards 2030 and beyond.

Global Goals Critical for Indigenous Peoples at the Frontlines of Climate Change

The war in Ukraine and other military conflicts are humanitarian tragedies. They also impact prosperity and social outcomes through the rest of the world, including exacerbating poverty, food insecurity, and access to affordable energy. The climate and biodiversity crises amplify the impact of these crises.

Climate Change: Individual Action Versus Collective Action

Indigenous peoples around the world are often found at the frontlines of climate change and they are among the first to face the direct impacts of warming and rapid changes in the living environment. Emerging evidence suggests that the livelihoods and cultural identities of the more than 370 million indigenous peoples of North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific are already under threat.

They contribute very little to greenhouse emissions and share a unique bond with nature that is now recognized as vital for addressing the interconnected planetary crises, yet it is a fact that climate change has exacerbated the difficulties already faced by these vulnerable communities. Therefore, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has special relevance for the over 500 million indigenous people.

The Arctic is the fastest warming region in the world, with some places experiencing over 5 degree C rise in temperatures in the past two decades. In the high arctic region, indigenous communities have survived the extreme cold for tens of thousands of years, depending on hunting walrus, seals, reindeer and polar bear. Their economic, social and cultural existence and identity is associated with hunting, as well as herding reindeer and fishing.

The Sámi, Europe’s only recognized indigenous population, inhabit the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, extending across 388,000 square kilometers.

The Sámi people have been herding reindeer in the frozen landscapes since the last Ice Age. Reindeer herding is vital to the culture, subsistence and economy of all the inhabitants of these regions, not just the indigenous communities. It will take all of the Saami traditions, local knowledge and methods of land and resource management and local knowledge to adapt to these rapid climatic changes.

The Inuit who live in northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Chukotka in Russia are hunters and the changing climate and landscape has forced them to alter hunting and harvesting time. They are worried about the loss of sea ice and extinction threat to animals like the polar bears, walrus, seals, and marine birds that rely on sea ice as habitat. The Inuit culture and relationship are uniquely related to the Arctic ecosystem, and what happens to the species directly affects their future.

Other indigenous people of the arctic, namely, the Aleut in the Aleutian Islands, Gwich’in in North America, Nenets, Chukchi and many others in northern Russia face similar existential challenges. It is expected that the opening up of the High Arctic sea routes and the race to exploit minerals and hydrocarbons of the hitherto inaccessible north will further compromise the survival of the indigenous communities of the region.

Nowhere are the indigenous people more threatened than in the Amazon with the invasion of indigenous land by miners, loggers and farmers in Brazil. Across the amazon, extractive industries implemented without the consent of indigenous people are threatening the livelihoods. Deforestation is a major cause of climate change and it is having a profound impact on the indigenous communities of the Amazon basis.

Indigenous communities in Africa, Australia and on the small island nations are facing multiple existential threats. Encroachment, water scarcity, food availability and disease are aggravated by climate change impacts. Rising sea levels may force the abandonment of some Pacific Island nations and displace hundreds of thousands. Climate change impacts will likely lead to the worst ever humanitarian crisis, with indigenous communities being the worst affected.

Closer home, in the Himalayan region, the lives of indigenous communities are threatened by glacial meltdown. In the short term accelerated melting of glaciers increases the volume of water flow, with floods and erosions downstream. In the long term, water scarcity has been predicted by several studies, as glaciers and snow cover shrink. The short term and long-term impacts will affect millions of montane and riparian communities across the Himalayan region.

India, home to the second largest tribal population in the world, is placed at 121 in the list of 163 countries ranked in the recently published SDG Report 2022. Several of the Global Goals including SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG5 (Gender Equality).

SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) are assessed to be stagnating and represent major challenges towards achieving the Global Goals. Among others, SDG1 (No Poverty), SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG10 (Reduced Inequalities) also represent significant challenges with moderate improvement since last year.

Of the 700 indigenous communities in India, most are forest or fringe forest dwellers dependent on natural resources for sustenance, or riparian, montane and coastal inhabitants prone to flooding, erosion and landslides.

The loss of forest cover, proliferation of invasive vegetation, human wildlife conflicts, storms and other extreme weather events have all emerged as direct threats to the food security of millions, undermining many of the SDGs. The impact of climate change on indigenous food sources and native biodiversity used as food and medicine by indigenous communities is not known.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Climate Change, Sustainability and People put together by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development earlier this year stated that even in the best-case scenario, the Himalayan mountains will lose more than one-third of their ice by the end of the century.

The projections are worst for the Eastern Himalayan region, with near total loss of glaciers in the same time period. With rising temperatures and precipitation changes, the implications for indigenous communities will be profound and threats from glacial lakes, flash floods, landslides, erosion and extreme weather events are likely to increase.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly in September 2007. The Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples and establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for their survival, dignity, and well-being.

It elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples of the world. The first World Conference on Indigenous Peoples held in September 2014 provided an opportunity to share perspectives and best practices on the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples, including pursuing the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous peoples are vital to the creating a dynamic adaptation and mitigation pathway. Involvement of local communities in conserving and restoring the natural ecosystems is important to enhance resilience. It is widely recognized that traditional knowledge and solutions must be harnessed for appropriate localized responses to help cope with these challenges.

There are many examples of the fact that indigenous people interpret and react to the impacts of climate change in creative ways, drawing on traditional knowledge and other technologies to find solutions which may help society at large to cope with impending changes. The utilization of traditional knowledge for conservation of the natural ecosystems has emerged as one of vital components for resilience development.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes the right of indigenous peoples to the conservation and protection of the environment of their lands and resources.

Achieving the SDGs is fundamentally an investment agenda in physical infrastructure, including renewable energy, and human capital. Yet the poorest half of the world including most indigenous communities lack market access to capital on acceptable terms.

Planning for the future should include enhancement and support for the adaptive capacity of indigenous peoples integrated with disaster preparation, land-use planning, environmental conservation and sustainable development strategies. These considerations are critical to achieving the Global Goals within this decade as envisaged.

Rituraj Phukan is an environmental writer, adventurer & naturalist based in Assam. He is the Founder of the Indigenous People’s Climate Justice Forum, National Coordinator for Biodiversity, Climate Reality Project India, and member of the IUCN.He is the Climate Change editor of Mahabahu.

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