September 30, 2009

Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change and the Right to Self Determination

Such arrogance to speak of owning the land.
How can you own that which will outlive you?

Land is life, What is the most precious thing to man? Life. If life is threatened, what ought a
man do? Resist. This he must do, otherwise he is dishonored and that is worse than death.

-Macliing Dulag, Kalinga pangat (elder and leader of the

Butbut tribe from Kalinga, Cordillera, Philippines who was
slain by State military forces on April 24, 1980 because of his
leadership in the successful opposition to the World-Bank
funded Chico Dams.

These are the words of the Cordillera martyr Macliing Dulag that sharply articulate the militant
tradition of indigenous peoples’’ worldview and struggle for land, Mother Earth and life. Integral in the
historic Cordillera peoples’’ struggle for the defense of land, life and resources is the battle against
global warming and climate change in essence.

The world is currently caught in the debate on climate change and its alarming impacts, and mitigation
and adaptation strategies have been forwarded. Climate change is a big environmental concern yet
there is still a need to elevate the issue of climate change beyond the bounds of environmental issues.
It must be understood that in this issue, there are exploiters and there are victims. It must be understood
that there is disproportionate vulnerability of the majority and certain populations to the adverse
impacts of climate change, of which indigenous peoples are very much included.

The climate crisis is best understood by acknowledging its systemic root causes and the accountability
of the world capitalist system driven by the few global elite and imperialist countries and the globally
dominated capitalist production and exploitation of the world’’s environment and resources. Imperialist
and advance capitalist countries have imposed neo-liberal policies in advancing their imperialist
agenda and plunder especially in underdeveloped countries, leading to the destruction of the world’’s
resources for their profit and greed. This greed for profit is responsible for the operation of large-
scale extractive industries which is responsible for the large-scale emission of greenhouse gases in
some countries like the Philippines, India, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, to name a few.

In any debate, discussion or policy formulation on climate change, indigenous peoples should be
involved because they deserve specific attention being a vulnerable population in this issue. If only
government’’s and imperialist States heeded indigenous peoples’’ world view of the Earth, land and its
resources, we may not have reached this alarming state of global warming and climate change. States
and capitalists’’ viewpoint contradicts with indigenous peoples’’ world view of land and the Earth. To
indigenous peoples, land is life and must thus be nourished, nurtured and defended. Capitalists on the
other hand treat land as a commodity for profit, and nothing else. If the best environmentalists and
defenders of the Earth should be named, these are the indigenous peoples as proven by their time-
tested practice of sustainable living and culture.

While we welcome mitigation and adaptation measures on climate change, these do not seriously
address the root causes of the climate crisis and only serves as temporary relief. Any solution to
climate change must be seen not at the expense of indigenous peoples but instead at the framework of
indigenous peoples’’ right to self determination and people’’s sovereignty over their patrimony and
resources.

We can come up with as much mitigation and adaptation strategies, but the gravity of the situation
dictates an overhaul of the world capitalist system and a stop to the imposition of neo-liberal policies
in underdeveloped countries. We must take note that economic and material growth are limited to the
Earth’’s endowed resources. We must respect the limits of the Earth; the needs of the people and the
planet must take precedent over the push for growth and profits.

The climate change crisis, its end-result of catastrophic proportions especially to the least contributors
if they are contributors at all, is also a political issue. Addressing it necessitates people’’s assertion of
their sovereign rights and control over their resources and participation in the processes of local and
global response to climate change, where indigenous peoples must be involved. Addressing climate
change must recognize and respect indigenous peoples’’ right to self determination as enshrined in the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Thus, people’’s struggles and movements for the assertion to land and resources must be strengthened
and they must mobilize in their greatest number to put a stop to the capitalist and imperialist activities
that worsen climate change. The people themselves can chart their own solutions in overhauling the
profit-driven world capitalist system for humanity’’s survival, which depends on the Earth’’s survival.
States and all international financial institutions and international bodies must stop implementing and
supporting policies, projects and any other undertaking what is environmentally destructive and
worsens global warming and climate change.

They should instead support actions that strengthen sustainable adaptation and mitigation measures
including science and technology just as long as these are appropriate and respects indigenous peoples’’
rights. All States and governments should also repeal laws and policies that hasten and worsen
climate change and its impacts, such as the Mining Act of 1995 in the Philippines and instead
formulate and implement laws that protect the environment and indigenous peoples to mitigate climate
change.

As rights holders, indigenous peoples must be part of such a movement that shall hold accountable
imperialists States and their transnational corporations, because addressing the problem of climate
change is also a quest for social justice and self determination. #

Since its establishment in June 1984, the Cordillera Peoples’’ Alliance for the Defense of Ancestral Domain and for Self-
Determination has contributed significantly to the protection and promotion of the human rights and fundamental freedoms
of indigenous peoples, not only in the region of the Northern Luzon Cordillera itself, but in the Philippines as a whole and
even beyond. To know more about the CPA, log on to www.cpaphils.org