Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and frontline Indigenous activists discuss today the important work of land and water defenders within Canada and beyond who are protecting biodiversity. The panelists were calling out false solutions and the lack of political will within colonial spaces such as the UN Conference on Biodiversity.
Indigenous Nations worldwide are at the forefront of maintaining biodiversity for the future of our planet and the next generations to come. Yet, while state representatives are gathered in Montreal for the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference, Indigenous communities on Turtle Island, Abya Yala (Latin America), and beyond are standing up against many of these very settler entities that threaten the relationship to the land and all its living beings.
“Our territory is 22,000 square kilometers in northern British Columbia and it’s under attack by the Coastal Gas Link pipeline (CGL), owned by TC Energy. We are surrounded by RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). We are struggling every day to keep our land. Our own existence is based on the land and is at risk in this moment”, said Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Gidim’ten Camp, Wet’suwet’en Nation.
In Canada a ruling recognized the validity of hereditary governance. Most of the territory of British Columbia was never ceded by the Indigenous Peoples of the land. Still, indigenous people are marginalized and discriminated against. The Government of Canada endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the “Declaration”) without qualification, and committed to its full and effective implementation. Many indigenous people in Canada are stuck in a legal limbo regarding the sovereignty of their own territories
Whether claiming to be progressive or otherwise, many state officials who gather in the name of protecting Biodiversity on the world stage displace Indigenous Peoples, and their relations with nature in the name of profit.
From pipelines and chemical valleys to forestry plantations, Indigenous communities are facing the tremendous loss of our lands and resources to the extractive policies of governments and capitalist interests all around the world.
The Indigenous Peoples at CBD COP 15, are demanding Indigenous-led solutions to the climate crisis and the recognition of indigenous rights and the sovereignty of their territory. The indigenous peoples are the keepers of Biodiversity around the world. It is through their solutions that we will see the world through the climate crisis.
