*A note on language
Land Matters: Indigenous land sovereignty is a key climate solution
Rights Matter: Indigenous peoples face violence for protecting the planet
Culture Matters: Indigenous practices show paths to sustainable living
Indigenous sovereignty is about honoring the human rights, self-determination, cultural protection of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and stewardship of ancestral land and resources of Indigenous peoples. Read this brief overview of Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice, these Indigenous Principles for a Just Transition with policy examples, and the full UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Settler colonialism and imperialism, which commit environmental injustice and disproportionately harms Indigenous communities, also harm the land and contribute to climate change. Impacts of climate change are a “hangover” and “long shadow” of this history of colonization and exploitation.
Since climate change stems in part from colonialism and its exploitation of Indigenous people and land, climate justice calls for anti-colonial solutions that protect Indigenous rights. Indigenous sovereignty recognizes the importance of protecting the right of self-determination of Indigenous people in climate solutions, as well as the importance of Indigenous leadership in creating those solutions.
→ Refer to the #IdleNoMore & #LandBack Movements under “What’s Being Done Today?”
→ Refer to the Climate Justice 101 Guide on Environmental Racism & Intersectionality
In addition to being a human rights issue, the UN reported in 2019 that Indigenous sovereignty could save the planet. Growing scientific evidence shows how Indigenous people (with their rights, lands, practices, and worldviews) are critical leaders in effective solutions to solve climate change. ****Indigenous sovereignty is climate action (Idle No More).
“The world needs to understand that Indigenous peoples are only 5% of the world’s population but protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity. As the guardians of forests, mountains, glaciers and islands we have found natural ways to protect all kinds of ecosystems. Indigenous knowledge is intricately and sensitively linked to each ecosystem so it is a very special resource for climate solutions.”
—Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, member of the Puele Mbororo/Wodaabe pastoralist people in Chad, "Women and Indigenous peoples can help win the war on climate change"
“I hear elders say, ‘The land doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it.’...The more of it we get back, the more we can care for it, the healthier the land will be and the healthier we will be.”
*—*Clayton Dumont, Klamath council member, “'Piecing together a broken heart': Native Americans rebuild territories they lost”