LATIN AMERICAN INDIGENOUS FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE RESULTS

LATIN AMERICAN INDIGENOUS FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE RESULTS

From March 29 to 31, 2010 in the city of San José, Costa Rica, regional and subregional networks of indigenous peoples in Latin America that make up the Latin American Indigenous Forum on Climate Change: The Central American Indigenous Council (CICA), the Indian Mesoamerican Council (ICMA), the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), Indigenous Women’s Network on Biodiversity, the Continental Network of Indigenous Women Region South America, the Indian Chair traveling and the International Forum of Indigenous Women, self-organized, met to critically analyze the solutions proposed by governments to address the effects of climate change and agree on a unified political position on the part of our organizations in the face of COP 16 on Climate Change being held in December this year in Mexico.

After having analyzed and debated the issues of context and the political situation relating to the negotiation process for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, we express the following:

1. The solutions proposed by governments and international NGOs to address the effects of climate change based on market logic, both referring to the clean development mechanism as proposals for REDD +, constitute new forms of geopolitical economic threats to both indigenous rights, which are guaranteed by numerous international instruments, and the livelihoods of our peoples. On behalf of these initiatives, states and transnational corporations are promoting the construction of dams, biofuels, oil exploration, forest plantations, monocultures, including those that are causing the expropriation and destruction of our territories, and in other cases, criminalization, prosecution and even murders of indigenous brothers and sisters to defend their territories.

2. Solutions to address the effects of climate change must be holistic, coherent and respectful of human rights and of Mother Earth. It also should not be limited to Western scientific knowledge, but also include traditional knowledge, innovations and practices, which have historically contributed to the efforts of conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity in our territories guaranteed.

3. We note that the vast majority of sites being proposed by governments and NGOs to participate in the REDD mechanism, are located in indigenous territories. This finding, first, shows that our most concentrated areas of forest cover still in condition, and on the other hand, raises the urgent need for governments and NGOs that promote REDD to ensure the full exercise of our rights contained in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially land rights, self-determination and free, prior and informed consent.

4. Indigenous peoples, without being directly responsible for the effects of climate change, are one of the clusters that are most likely are being affected, with the most obvious consequences: desertification processes, forced migration, our loss of biodiversity, loss of identity and famine. This raises the need to take affirmative action to compensate for the material and human damage we are seeing in our territories, not as an act of compassion, but for reparations and social and ecological justice.

5. We encourage multilateral and bilateral agencies and NGOs committed to the health of Mother Earth, human rights and particularly the rights of indigenous peoples, which provide strategic priorities within their specific lines of financial assistance to Latin American Indigenous Forum on Climate Change Climate, through its member organizations and indigenous territorial organizations to address this ecological crisis.

6. The regional indigenous networks (Women’s Continental Network, COICA, CAI, CIMA, CICA, Latin American Network of Women on Biodiversity, World Rainforest Alliance) reaffirm our political commitment to work together, both in building political and technical proposals and in the specific subnational, national, regional and international levels on the issue of climate change. All networks are committed to adding skills, experiences, materials and resources to ensure full and effective exercise of indigenous rights on all issues related to Climate Change. For the Self-Determination of Peoples!

Indigenous Declaration After the Belo Monte Auction 4/20/10

We, the indigenous people of the Xingú, do not want Belo Monte

Author(s): Cacique Bet Kamati Kayapó, Cacique Raoni Kayapó and Yakareti Juruna

Originally published in Valor Econômico - 20 April, 2010

We, the indigenous people of the Xingú, are here fighting for our people, for our lands, but we're also fighting for the future of the world. President Lula said last week that he was worried for indigenous people and worried about the Amazon, and that he does not want international NGOs to speak against Belo Monte. We are not international NGOs.

We, 62 indigenous leaders from the villages Bacajá, Mrotidjam, Kararaô, Terra-Wanga, Boa Vista Km 17, Tukamã, Kapoto, Moikarako, Aykre, Kiketrum, Potikro, Tukaia, Mentutire, Omekrankum, Cakamkubem and Pokaimone, have already suffered many invasions and threats. When the Portuguese came to Brazil, we indigenous people were already here, and many died, many lost their enormous vast territories, we lost many of the rights that we had, many lost parts of their culture, and other tribes disappeared completely. The forest is our butcher shop, the river is our market. We do not want the rivers of the Xingú to be invaded, and our villages and children to be threatened, children who will grow with our culture.

We do not accept the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam because we understand that it will bring more destruction to our region. We are not thinking only about the locale where they want to construct the dam, but about all of the destruction the dam will bring in the future: more corporations, more ranches, more land invasions, more conflicts, and even more dams. If the white man continues to carry on like this, everything will be destroyed very quickly. We ask ourselves: what else does the government want? What good is more energy after so much destruction?

We have already held many reunions and large meetings against Belo Monte, such as in 1989 and 2008 in Altamira, Pará, and in 2009 in the village Piaraçu, in which many of our leaders were present. We have already spoken personally with President Lula and told him that we do not want this dam, and he promised us that this dam would not be shoved down our throats. We have also already spoken with Eletronorte and Eletrobrás, with Funai, and with Ibama. We already warned the government that if Belo Monte were built, they would have war on their hands. The government did not understand our message and challenged indigenous people once more, saying that they are going to build the dam at any cost. When President Lula said this, he demonstrated that he is not concerned with what indigenous people say, and that he does not know our rights. His lack of respect led him to schedule the auction for Belo Monte during indigenous peoples' week.

Because of this, we indigenous people of the Xingú region invite James Cameron and his team, representatives of the Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (such as the women's movement, ISA and CIMI, Amazon Watch and other organizations). We want them to help us carry our message to the entire world and to the Brazilians who do not yet know what is happening on the Xingú. We have invited them because we see that many people from across Brazil and many foreigners want to help protect indigenous people and the territories of our people. Those who do this are very welcome among us.

We are here fighting for our people, for our lands, for our forests, for our rivers, for our children and in the honor of our ancestors. We fight also for the future of the world, because we know that these forests bring benefits not only to indigenous people but to the people of Brazil and to the entire world. We also know that without these forests, many people will suffer, even more than they have already suffered from the destruction that has taken place in the past. All life is connected, like the blood that unites a family.

The world must know what is happening here, they must perceive how destroying forests and indigenous people destroys the entire world. Because of this we do not want Belo Monte. Belo Monte represents the destruction of our people.

To close, we proclaim that we are ready, we are strong, we are willing to fight, and we remember the words of a letter from an indigenous Native American relative sent to the President years ago: "Only when the white man destroys the entire forest, when he kills all the fish, when he kills all the animals, and when he finishes off all the rivers, will he perceive that nobody is capable of eating money."