Include indigenous rights in global climate change policies, summit told

Any global agreement on climate change has to include the rights of Aboriginal Peoples, delegates said Wednesday at an international climate change summit in Anchorage, Alaska.

The connection between the rights of indigenous peoples and climate change took centre stage Wednesday at the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change, hosted by the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

"Our indigenous people are saying that the effects of climate change right now [are] affecting our right to practise our culture," Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, told CBC News on Wednesday.

"It's affecting our right to live in a sustainable manner, and to have access to our traditional food systems."

Since the summit began Monday, about 500 delegates have been sharing their experiences with how climate change has affected their communities, as well as talking about indigenous rights, such as the rights to land, clean water and traditional native foods.

Such rights are guaranteed under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Goldtooth said any deal on climate change has to be directly tied to those rights.

"Our strategy is to try to get the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People within its body," Goldtooth said.

John Crump, polar issues co-ordinator with the United Nations Environmental Programme, said indigenous rights will be recognized in any climate change protocols adopted by the United Nations.

But specifics on how that would work have yet to be determined, Crump added.

"This process will continue, and the need to recognize indigenous rights in climate change negotiations and in how the burden of climate change impacts are distributed, that's a long-term project," he said.

By the time the five-day summit wraps up Friday, summit delegates are expected to draft a formal declaration and action plan on climate change, which will be presented to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.