Voices of indigenous groups muted as climate conference moves from Latin America to Europe
After weeks of protests in Chile, the country pulled out of hosting this year’s COP25 – the annual UN climate talks.
To plug the gap, Spain’s government stepped up and offered Madrid as an alternative venue. But the relocation has been problematic for the Latin American groups, particularly indigenous communities, who had hoped to attend the talks, which began on Monday.
Jorge Nehuen, a member of the Mapuche community in Argentina, was due to attend the summit, but is unable to finance a trip to Madrid.
“We are really frustrated by the change of location because we have taken part in numerous meetings to co-ordinate our community with the Mapuche
community in Chile as our territory is on both sides of the frontier.
“We had had a number of meetings to ensure our messages were well planned and would have the right force to present to the world. What really is happening here is being concealed.
“Our problems now won’t be seen by the world.”
Mr Nehuen described the “invisible fight” his community is having with a company carrying out fracking in his region, which he said is contaminating soil, adversely affecting air quality, food sources, and destroying community life.
“These industries are raping our territories,” he said. “They are messing with our habitat, they are ruining our culture and traditions. And now nobody will be able to hear us speak about it.”
The move has affected so many groups that a fund-raiser was launched to help one group of young Brazilian activists to attend. It reached the Dh4,657 target four days before the summit.
Indigenous groups in Latin America are considered some of the most important voices in the climate discussion, and they are increasingly under threat for speaking out. Last year, 83 of the 164 environmental defenders killed around the world were from the continent.
This move has left campaigners disenfranchised, say human rights and environmental groups. “The sudden venue change made it harder for vulnerable groups to participate, due to higher cost, logistics and distance,” said Gabriela Cordon, who works at the Rainforest Alliance.
“It’s highly important minority groups, who are often marginalised from decision-making in their own countries, to raise their voices. They need to share their experiences and learnings from a different perspective than industrialised countries have.”
The Rainforest Alliance is funding 10 indigenous women leaders from Brazil to travel to Madrid to participate.
“We want their voice to be heard and we want them to learn from this event how they can better address climate crisis in their communities,” Ms Cordon said.
Latin and Central America are projected to be some of the worst affected areas if global temperatures rise by 4°C by 2050 – as they are currently projected to do. Recent reports have suggested that the effects of climate change have pushed Central American inhabitants to migrate North to the US.
Ms Cordon said that the Latin American indigenous popula
What really is happening here is being concealed. Our problems now won’t be seen by the world JORGE NEHUEN A member of the Mapuche community in Argentina
tion is particularly affected by climate change, as their main income sources are agriculture and forestry activities that are directly affected by environment factors such as rainfall patterns, warmer temperatures, higher humidity and increase of plague.
“Making sure their voice is heard allows the decision-makers to address climate crisis in a more integral approach, where consuming countries and producing countries can share the responsibility of their business actions,” she said.
Sebastien Duyck, a climate justice attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law, said there had been “great expectations” that the Latin American location would enable both indigenous peoples and civil society from the region to get involved in the climate discussion.
“We were really disappointed as we have been working for many months with partners in Latin America and particularly in Chile to ensure that the priorities of indigenous peoples and civil society from the region can be well represented at the COP.”
The last time a COP summit held in the region was 2014, in Peru. The relocation of this year’s conference means five out of the last six meetings have been held in Europe, the exception being Morocco in 2016.
Mr Duyck said hosting the COP in Santiago, Chile, would have been “particularly important” to bring the perspectives of people who are so vulnerable to climate change.