Guide on Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples

5What is the situation in relation toindigenous peoples, forests and REDD?• Indigenous peoples who live in and depend on forests have developedand sustained an intricate relationship with forests and thus they viewthe forest in a more wholistic way. For them, talking of forests only interms of carbon or emissions reduction does not make sense. This viewwas reiterated in the “Hague Declaration of the International IndigenousForum on Climate Change” 4 in November 2000 during COP6.Hague Declaration of the InternationalIndigenous Forum on CLimate Change• Earth is our Mother. Our special relationship with Earth as stewards, asholders of indigenous knowledge cannot be set aside. Our special relationshipwith her has allowed us to develop for millenia a particular knowledge of theenvironment that is the foundation of our lifestyles, institutions, spiritualityand world view. Therefore, in our philosophies, the Earth is not a commodity,but a sacred space that the Creator has entrusted to us to care for her, thishome where all beings live. (Section 11: Considerations; Paragraph 1)• We reject the inclusion of carbon sinks within the CDM and disagree with thedefinition of carbon sinks as stated in the Kyoto Protocol. We, as IndigenousPeoples, manage the “natural carbon sinks” in our territories according to ourworld view and their integral use is a right that our people have an exerciseaccording to our local and specific needs. We do not accept that forests arevalued only for their carbon sequestration activity. (Section 11, paragraph 10)• A significant part of the remaining tropical and sub-tropical forests arefound in indigenous peoples’ territories.• Conflicting claims over ownership, governance, control, use and accessto forests still persist in manytropical countries. Some of theseend up in courts or in violentarmed conflicts. Generally, tropicalforest countries have low forestgovernance capacities.• Many indigenous peoples claimthat they have not experiencednor seen satisfactory experiences,mechanisms and arrangementsat the national level - nor at theregional and global levels - onRole of Forest forIndigenous Peopleshabitatsource of livelihoodprovides ecosystems servicessource of health servicescultural and spiritual functionsPART V: REDD/REDD+ and Indigenous Peoples 55