Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.

Native American proverb
 

Each fifth of June, Environment Day is celebrated throughout the world. On this special occasion, the voice of unrepresented nations and peoples needs to be heard. Indigenous peoples, whose livelihoods depend on their environment, are usually the first victims of climate change. Rarely consulted by the states they live in, rarely helped to protect their surroundings, they are facing grave environmental perils and often lose control over resources vital to their communities.

UNPO calls upon the United Nations and the countries of the world to ensure that unrepresented nations and peoples everywhere are considered full and equal partners in discussions relevant to their environment and included in the decision making processes which seek to balance the economic benefits of resource exploitation against its environmental costs.

UNPO would also like to highlight the following key areas of concern:

Water: A Precious Commodity

The loss and pollution of water hits local populations hard. It exacerbates endemic poverty, threatens agricultural sustainability, and is the source of many of the most deadly of diseases. UNPO works to promote awareness of the widespread impact of water pollution and scarcity, highlighting its integral link to the viability of communities across the world. As scarcity grows, the control of water has become a new front for the oppression of minority communities, making it ever more important to recognise and safeguard a people’s right to their resources.

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Deforestation: When Livelihoods are Cut Away

Deforestation is taking place on an alarming scale, with annual losses in areas inhabited by UNPO Members, such as Tibet, the Batwa of Rwanda, Maasai, and West Papua, Bougainville and Aceh in Southeast Asia, bearing the brunt of the environmental cost.

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Oil: The Curse of Black Gold

Some of the most severe environmental problems in the world are caused by exploration, retrieval and transport of oil. All too frequently the voices of indigenous communities in oil-rich lands, such as the Ahwazi-Arabs in Iran, the Ogoni in Nigeria and the Khmer Krom in Vietnam, are ignored and overlooked by competing interests.

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Landmines Recognise No Cease-fire

Not only are more than 70 people killed or injured by anti-personnel mines daily, but landmines also threaten entire communities as they become a tremendous environmental problem severely affecting for instance indigenous peoples in Burma. With large tracts of agricultural land being mined, essential activities such as farming, gathering firewood and fetching water becomes a life-threatening exercise.

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In February 2007, UNPO’s General Assembly decided to begin a year-long focus on issues relating to environment. From our participation to Earth Day in The Hague to our address to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, we will keep on raising the voice of the unheard, a voice which needs be heard in the discourse on climate change, as indigenous peoples are the first to face the impacts of climate change.

Read more about UNPO on environment:

[UNPO Senior Adviser comments on the environmental situations of some of the world’s indigenous peoples]

[UNPO’s General Assembly announces focus on environment]

[UNPO celebrates Earth Day 2007]

[UNPO addresses the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues]