This week, the IPCC releases its Land and Climate Change Report making it clear that fossil fuels have to go now, or our land and food systems are in major trouble. The combination of climate change and land degradation has far-reaching consequences that hit the most vulnerable the hardest – impacting food systems, biodiversity and land that many are so strongly tied to.
On World Indigenous Peoples Day, we recognize the key role that those native to these lands play in addressing both the climate crisis and unabated land degradation caused by deforestation and unsustainable farming practices.
Stand in solidarity with these communities on World Indigenous Peoples Day. Watch and share their story now.
There are many solutions to the climate crisis. But not all are good. False solutions to the climate crisis could add even more pressure to those on the frontlines of climate impacts. Large scale deployment of carbon capture technology and production of energy using biomass might end up reducing arable land at a time when the combined impacts of climate change and land degradation will reduce yields in large parts of the planet.
We believe that in order to truly tackle the climate crisis, the leadership of indigenous communities is key. The traditional practices that have preserved land and biodiversity for so long, are crucial in forming solutions that do not further feed the chain of vulnerability and poverty.
And although Indigenous Peoples suffer the effects of climate change the hardest and are under constant attack from invaders and governments, they continue to protect places that help sustain not only their communities, but the rest of the world.
“Being indigenous means being born with a great responsibility, with an important fight. It means being the resistance” says Andreia Takua from Brazil.
This video shares the stories of indigenous leaders from Brazil and Colombia who are fighting the fossil fuel industry to protect their rights, their land, and any chance of us tackling the greatest issue our planet has ever faced: justice in the face of a climate crisis. Watch it now.