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BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has started dialogues with indigenous peoples’ communities around the world to compile alternative ways in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Chandra Roy, regional coordinator of the UNDP Indigenous Peoples Program, said the results of the dialogues would be presented to the governments concerned so they could adopt alternative ways to solve the global problem of climate change.
"What we are trying to do is gather and share with other countries these time-tested measures. The indigenous peoples we have talked to presented stories of innovations," Roy said in press forum here last week.
She said they have finished consultations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. The UN is set to conduct a series of dialogues in India and Australia, she said.
"The reason we chose these countries is because of their fragile ecosystems," said Roy.
European Union Ambassador Alistair MacDonald also said the EU is conducting similar dialogues in preparation to drafting a resolution that will acknowledge the ideas of indigenous peoples in mitigating the effects of climate change.
"We can learn a lot from the indigenous peoples," said MacDonald.
Representatives of different indigenous peoples organizations from the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, India, Nepal, Thailand and Burma gathered here recently for the Asia Workshop for the Promotion of the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
They said indigenous peoples have been stewards of the environment and they continue to sustain the world's remaining biodiversity and forests.
"However, climate change is disrupting our close link to nature, with disastrous impacts on indigenous peoples under conditions of vulnerability, poverty and neglect," they said.
The UNPF recognized that the indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and ecological knowledge could contribute to designing and implementing appropriate and sustainable mitigation measures against climate change.
"Indigenous peoples can also assist in crafting the path towards developing low carbon release and sustainable communities," the UNPF said.
