By Laura Quinones
As
the planet heats up and the push to decarbonise gathers
pace, Indigenous Peoples – long among the world’s most
effective environmental stewards – are once again being
left behind, a new UN report reveals.
Launched on
Thursday, The
State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples exposes a
stark imbalance: while Indigenous Peoples make up just six
per cent of the global population, they safeguard 80 per
cent of the planet’s remaining biodiversity – yet
receive less than one per cent of international climate
funding.
The report offers a sobering assessment of
climate action that is not only lacking in urgency, but in
fairness. From green energy projects imposed without consent
to policy decisions made in rooms where Indigenous voices
are absent, these communities are too often excluded from
climate solutions, displaced by them, and denied the
resources to lead the way.
“Although we are
disproportionately affected by the climate crisis,
Indigenous Peoples are not victims,” writes Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim, Chair of the UN
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in the report’s
foreword.
“We are custodians of the natural
world who are committed to maintaining the natural
equilibrium of the planet for the generations to
come.”
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The publication, overseen by the UN,
brings together contributions from Indigenous leaders,
researchers and the World Health Organization (WHO), combining case
studies, data and lived experience from seven distinct
regions of the world.
Modern problems, ancient
solutions
The report calls for a seismic
shift in how Indigenous knowledge is understood and
respected – reframing it not as “traditional” or
folkloric, but as scientific and technical
knowledge.
Indigenous knowledge systems, authors
argue, are “time-tested, method-driven” and built on
direct relationships with ecosystems that have sustained
life for millennia.
For example, in Peru, a
Quechua community in Ayacucho has revived water
sowing and harvesting practices to adapt to shrinking
glaciers and drought. These methods, part of ancestral
stewardship of hydrological cycles, are now being shared
across borders with Costa Rican farmers as a model of
South-South climate cooperation.
In
Somalia, oral traditions serve as ecological law.
The report cites cultural norms such as prohibitions on
cutting certain trees (gurmo go’an) as evidence of
environmental governance embedded in generational wisdom –
passed through proverbs, stories, and taboos rather than
policy papers.
Meanwhile, the Comcaac people
of Mexico encode ecological and maritime knowledge
in their language. Names like Moosni Oofia (where green
turtles gather) and Tosni Iti Ihiiquet (where pelicans
hatch) act as living data points – “vital to their
survival,” the report emphasises.
Green
solutions without consultation
The report
also looks at how even as the world embraces a renewable
energy future, many Indigenous Peoples are finding
themselves on the frontlines not as climate partners, but as
collateral damage from some of the
solutions.
“So-called green solutions often
pose as much of a threat to Indigenous Peoples as the
climate crisis itself,” writes Mr. Ibrahim. From
biofuel expansion, carbon offsetting schemes, and mineral
extraction for clean energy technologies, the new economy is
often being built on old injustices.
For example, in
Africa, the report draws attention to how demand for
minerals linked to the green energy transition — including
lithium and cobalt — has led to extractive activities that
proceed without free,
prior and informed consent. These projects often result
in environmental degradation and displacement, echoing
colonial patterns of land exploitation.
In several
countries across the Americas, carbon offset projects tied
to forest conservation have also been implemented without
consultation – often on Indigenous lands – resulting in
environmental degradation and exclusion from financial
benefits.
Throughout, the report warns that if climate
actions continue to be designed and implemented without
Indigenous Peoples at the centre, they risk replicating the
extractive and exclusionary systems that fuelled the crisis
in the first place.
Climate change is a health
crisis
The report also includes a chapter
commissioned by WHO that details how climate-related health
impacts intersect with the social, cultural, and spiritual
lives of Indigenous communities.
In the
Arctic, changes in temperature, wildlife migration,
and weather patterns are disrupting traditional practices
like hunting and harvesting. These disruptions are causing
stress and threatening food security.
Indigenous women
are particularly affected by the intersection of climate
change and health. In East Africa, for
example, women are more vulnerable to neglected tropical
diseases such as schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and
soil-transmitted helminthiases.
In the
Amazon, climate-induced biodiversity loss has
reduced access to traditional foods and medicinal plants,
contributing to nutritional deficiencies among pregnant and
nursing women, as well as broader community health
vulnerabilities.
Despite these challenges, the report
emphasises resilience. Communities are implementing locally
rooted adaptation strategies, often led by women and elders.
These include restoring traditional diets, strengthening
intergenerational knowledge sharing, and adapting harvesting
calendars to new ecological rhythms.
Excluded
from the table and the funds
Although
Indigenous Peoples are increasingly acknowledged in global
environmental frameworks, the report reveals that their role
in shaping and implementing climate policy remains severely
limited — both in terms of funding and
governance.
Indigenous communities continue to face
structural barriers that prevent them from accessing
international climate finance. While significant
resources flow through climate initiatives worldwide, less
than 1 per cent reaches Indigenous Peoples
directly.
The report calls for a fundamental
shift: not just to increase funding, but to change who
controls it.
Among its key recommendations are the
creation of Indigenous-led financial mechanisms, formal
recognition of Indigenous governance systems, and the
protection of data sovereignty – ensuring communities
control how knowledge about their lands and livelihoods is
collected and used.
Unless these systems are
transformed, the report warns, climate action risks
reproducing the same patterns of exclusion and dispossession
that have long undermined both Indigenous rights and global
environmental
goals.
