Presentation by Andrea Carmen at "Indigenous Peoples’ rights and land tenure" Discussion Forum on the first day of the Global Landscapes Forum 2015, in Paris, France alongside COP21. For more information go to: www.landscapes.org.

1. Climate Change and Land Rights of
Indigenous Peoples
Global Landscapes Forum, December 5, 2015

2. “Everyone has the right to a standard of
living adequate for the health and well-
being of himself & of his family…including
food”
-- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Health, Food and
Well-Being are Human Rights

3. Deschutes River Oregon, Traditional
Fishing, June 2007
“…In no case
may a people be
deprived of its
own means of
subsistence.”
-- Article 1 in Common,
International Covenants
on Civil and Political
Rights and on
Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights

4. The Treaty Right to Food
“The Privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering
the wild rice upon the lands the rives and the lakes
including in the territory ceded, is guaranteed to
the Indians”
-- 1837 US Treaty with the Chippewa Nation

5. History is Made: the UN General Assembly
Adopts the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, September 2007
New York
September 13th, 2007
Geneva, 1977

6. Lands, Territories and Resources
“Indigenous peoples have the right to the
lands, territories and resources which they
have traditionally owned, occupied or
otherwise used or acquired…”
--- Article 26, para 1.

7. Spiritual Relationship with
Traditional Lands and Resources
“Indigenous peoples have the
right to maintain and strengthen
their distinctive spiritual
relationship with their
traditionally owned or otherwise
occupied and used lands,
territories, waters and coastal
seas and other resources and
to uphold their responsibilities
to future generations in this
regard.”
-- Article 25
)

8. Subsistence Rights and
Traditional Economies
“Indigenous peoples have the
right to maintain and develop
their political, economic and
social systems or institutions,
to be secure in the enjoyment
of their own means of
subsistence and development,
and to engage freely in all their
traditional and other economic
activities.”
-- Article 20,
paragraph 1

9. Environmental Protection and
Productive Capacity of Lands
Indigenous peoples have
the right to the
conservation and
protection of the
environment and the
productive capacity of
their lands or territories
and resources…
-- Article 29, para. 1

10. Article 32: FPIC and Development
“States shall consult and
cooperate in good faith with
the indigenous peoples
concerned through their own
representative institutions in
order to obtain their free and
informed consent prior to the
approval of any project
affecting their lands or
territories and other
resources, particularly in
connection with the
development, utilization or
exploitation of their mineral,
water or other resources.”
In 2008, the Treaty Chiefs of
Alberta Canada called for a
Moratorium on expansion of
Tar Sands development

11. Traditional Knowledge: Article 31
1. Indigenous peoples have the
right to maintain, control,
protect and develop their
cultural heritage, traditional
knowledge and traditional
cultural expressions, as well as
the manifestations of their
sciences, technologies and
cultures, including human and
genetic resources, seeds,
medicines, knowledge of the
properties of fauna and flora…

12. The Right to Participate in
Decision-Making
“Indigenous peoples have the
right to participate in decision-
making in matters which would
affect their rights, through
representatives chosen by
themselves in accordance with
their own procedures, as well as
to maintain and develop their
own Indigenous decision-
making institutions.” -- Article 18
Chief Wilton Littlechild, Rapporteur
UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, 2007

13. How is Climate Change affecting us?
“Climate change constitutes the single
most important threat to food security in
the future” -- UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food
Olivier de Schutter report to the UN Human Rights
Council, March 2009
--- “

14. Extreme Weather Events
The central part of the US is the only place on
Earth that lies directly in between an Arctic land
mass and a tropical ocean
Moore Oklahoma, May 2013

15. Montana
The Forests are Drying and Burning
British Columbia, Canada
California USABritish Columbia Canada

16. Melting Arctic Ice Affecting Native
Peoples and their Food Sources
Alaska

17. Once, more than a million spring-run Chinook lived in the
waters of the Central Valley in California. In 2010 there
were less than 10,000, a decline of 99%. Researchers at
UC Davis predicted the effect of climate change on the
Chinook salmon. In all the scenarios, even the hopeful
ones, spring run Chinook failed to survive until 2099.
Vital Food Plants & Animals Threatened

18. Changing weather patterns include dramatic
decreases in summer rainfall. Growing capacity of
corn is decreasing dramatically in many regions of
Mexico and the US

19. UNFCCC COP 21: Indigenous
Peoples continue to call for a
Strong, Rights-Based Outcome
• Full participation in decisions and
programs that affect us
• Protection for lifeways, lands &
tenure (OP 36) and resources
• Binding commitments by States
to cap global temperature rise,
significantly reduce GGE’s
• FPIC, recognition of Traditional
• Knowledge in mitigation &
adaptation programs
March for Indigenous
Peoples Rights, COP15,
Copenhagen, 2009

20. 20
Indigenous Traditional Knowledge-Based
Responses to Climate Change
“Tule marshes absorb more than ten times
more carbon than a pine forest”
-- Dr. William Carmen (Yaqui) Wildlife Biologist

21. Solutions and Responses within
our Nations
Seed sharing and
trading, 2nd
International Corn
Conference,
Okmulgee,
Oklahoma,
September, 2014

22. Elders Teaching Survival Skills
Gathering Tsass, Ya Ne Dah Ah Tribal
School, Chickaloon Native Village Alaska

23. Indigenous Peoples Salmon Gathering,
Klamath River, California, June 2013:
Restoring Traditional Knowledge and
“Taking Down the Dams”

24. “Coal is the Liver
of Mother Earth.
It has to stay in
the ground so she
can be healthy.”
-- Dine
elder Roberta
Blackgoat

25. Cheoque Utesia, Thank you very much