It is a fact that the economic interests of many developed countries has led to the destruction of the planet, exploiting its resources at a significant cost. Carlos Mora Vanegas

Venezuela / Ecology – “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” (George Orwell).

We know that global warming is increasingly decisive in the security of this planet and that the governments of its countries have to give it the necessary attention, take the measures that are needed and give way to actions that ensure that it doesn’t continue, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous, as indeed they are already.

The truth is that confronted with this reality, the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE in Spanish), delivers important information that indicates that we mustn’t overlook the fact that 80% of the strategic ecosystems are located in their territories, in the Amazon, the Andes or the coastal region. Indigenous ways of life have been the guarantors of the necessary equilibrium for life in the planet. In nearly 500 years, civilized man has taken the Earth to collapse, while the originary peoples have lived in it for over 10 thousand years, ensuring the life of numerous generations. The economic model, founded on irresponsible consumption and the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, has proved to be unsustainable and unviable. The accumulation of capital is about to make life in the planet come to an end.

It is definitely a known fact that the economic interests of many advanced countries have entailed the destruction of the planet, exploiting its resources at a significant social cost.

There is great truth in opinions that say that the economic crisis worsens because of a crisis in values, in models. In this context, indigenous voices strengthen their coherence: respect for life, the Pacha Mama, the Sumak Kausay. Humanity can choose between guiding its policies in the frame of the rights of nature or to continue in the spiral of consumption and exploitation. As ecoportal.net indicates, this is of course the position of the CONAIE and it has been the fundamental axis of the political project of the Nationalities and Peoples: ensuring the territorial rights because this strengthens initiatives for the protection of ecosystems which are fundamental for life and equilibrium in the planet. Therefore, indigenous peoples all over the world are quite right in firmly demanding “respect for our rights”.

Here lies the essence of the opposition to the expansion of the oil frontier towards the Center-South of the Amazon region. The emphasis lies in not wanting the tragedy of the northern Amazon, where the levels of pollution are among the highest in the world, to be repeated and extended.

There is also emphasis in stating that the energy crisis does not occur by mere chance. It’s the result of the breaking up of the water cycle, the result of the predation of primary forests, of the imposition of the monoculture of species like pine trees, cypresses, teak, which consume enormous amounts of water. Our peoples have been warning about this. That was the reason to vindicate the rights of nature in the new constitution. This is why principles such as the Pacha Mama and the Sumak Kausay had to be included. “Now is the time for Ecuadorians to show the world that we can be an example of coherence, responsibility and respect for life: we must drop the neo-liberal economic model, the arms race, the irrational indebtedness and let us all move towards the proposal of a society and a country of rights and law. We cannot condition leaving the oil that’s under the ground of the territories of the isolated peoples to international capital oriented to a country that is indebted and which buys arms in an increasingly worrisome manner. The life of the isolated peoples must be unconditionally guaranteed and their territories must be declared free from any drilling activity, for no price whatsoever. We must go from the Forest Partner towards the unrestricted respect of the territorial rights of the nationalities and the peoples; we have preserved the spaces of life and are determined to keep on doing it. The voice of our millenary peoples must continue to be heard because in their dreams of Ayahuasca and Mama Coca, our wise forefathers heard the call of the earth of Mother Earth, the call of life: coherence, keeping one’s word, respecting life, the rights of nature, those of future generations”.

The site called calentamientoglobalclima.org reminds us that concrete examples of the indigenous peoples affected by climate change mitigation measures include the case of a Dutch company whose activities involve planting trees in order to sell kidnapped carbon credits to those people who wish to compensate for the emissions they cause by air transportation. In March 2002, its project was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and more than 7,000 hectares of land were planted in Uganda from 1999 to 2002.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority, responsible for the administration of all national parks, has forced the indigenous peoples off the area. Forced displacements, which are being followed since 2002, made the indigenous peoples to move to nearby towns, caves and mosques. Over 50 people died during 2004.

In the meantime, the indigenous peoples of Malaysia and Indonesia have been uprooted due to the aggressive expansion of oil palm tree plantations for the production of biofuels. Likewise, nuclear wastelands and the building of hydroelectric dams have displaced indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands.

The impact of climate change over indigenous populations all over the world includes:

— The increase of diseases associated to rising temperatures and transmitted by vectors, as well as diseases transmitted by water such as cholera, malaria and dengue fever in tropical and sub-tropical zones.

— Drought and desertification originate more bush fires, which damage subsistence agriculture, hunting and subsistence harvest, as well as a serious loss of biological diversity.

— Different seasonal changes in the apparition of birds, flowering, etc. They appear early or are unconnected to their usual season or climate patterns.

— In arid or semi-arid zones: excess rain and prolonged drought and dust storms damage grasslands, crops and other products as well as cattle.

— In the Arctic: bigger waves, permafrost and mountain glaciers are melting, fusion of marine ice, erosion in coasts and shores.

— Decrease in animal populations and the introduction of new marine species due to the changes in the displacement of animals and of migration routes.

— In northern forests, new types of insects and longer life of endemic insects (for instance the fir tree beetle) that destroy trees and the rest of the vegetation.

— Erosion, hurricanes and increasingly stronger typhoons in coastal regions and small island States generate the loss of sweet water sources, of land, of mangrove swamps and environmental refugees.

— Increase in food insecurity due to the decrease in fish population and the discoloration of corals.

— Loss of crops because of harmful plagues (for example locust, rats, conifer beetles, etc.) and the increase in the cost of food due to the competence with the demand for biofuels.

— Extreme and unprecedented cold waves that cause health problems (for instance hypothermia, bronchitis and pneumonia, particularly in old people and children).

It is interesting to underline that some of the measures taken in order to stop global warming run the risk of being as harmful for the indigenous peoples as climate change itself, according to a new report elaborated by the indigenous rights organization Survival International.

The report The most uncomfortable of all truths: climate change and the indigenous peoples, lists four key “alleviating measures” which endanger the indigenous peoples:

1. Biofuels: promoted as a “green” energy opposite to fossil fuels. Most of the land where they are grown is the ancestral land of the indigenous peoples. If the expansion of bio-fuels continues according to forecasts, millions of indigenous peoples all over the world will be deprived of their land and their means of subsistence.

2. Hydroelectric energy: a new boom in the building of dams in the name of the struggle against climate change is throwing thousands of indigenous peoples from their homes.

3. Forest conservation: in order to “counteract the devastation” of global warming in Kenya, the hunter-gatherer ogiek peoples are being forced to leave the forest which has been their home for a hundred years.

4. Compensation of carbon emissions: the forests of the indigenous peoples now have economic value in the growing “carbon credit” market. The indigenous peoples consider that this will cause people to be forcefully displaced and “the robbing of our lands”.
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Carlos Mora Vanegas. Industrial Engineer-manager, lawyer EGADE (ITEMS), UC, Universidad de Chile. Postgraduate courses and masters in Business Administration, majoring in markets, human resources; quality and productivity; education, Doctorate in Education. Associate professor and investigator of the Postgraduate Area of Faces UC. Coordinator of the quality and productivity management post graduate program, FACES, UC. DEPROIMCA business consultant-advisor www.entorno-empresarial.com EXATEC. Article published in www.articuloz.com