The voice of indigenous peoples must be heard and incorporated into decisions affecting climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.

EUROCLIMA+ is a regional cooperation programme between Latin America and the European Union, for the development of plans and public policies that lead to the fulfilment of the commitments acquired and expressed with the accession to the Paris Agreement (COP 21, 2015) by the partner countries.

With a demand-driven approach, conveyed through a horizontal relational framework between partner countries, the European Union and Implementing Agencies, the "Country Dialogue", the programme is currently developed in six lines of action: Plans and Policies, Climate Finance, Transparency, Inter-sectoral Coordination, Action for Climate Empowerment and Gender and Vulnerable Groups. The latter specifically addresses interventions aimed at "Strengthening gender mainstreaming and participation of vulnerable groups, such as indigenous peoples and local communities, in policies, action plans and other measures related to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)" and the UNFCCC mandate, through paragraph 135 of UNFCCC decision 1/CP.21. It recognises the need to:

strengthen the knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of local communities and indigenous peoples to address climate change and, in response, establishes a platform for the exchange of experiences and best practices on mitigation and adaptation in a holistic manner.

From its initial approach, EUROCLIMA+ has contemplated the need for priority attention to be paid to the groups most vulnerable to the variations that climate change is producing, assuming the differential impact from a gender perspective, as well as on those people and communities that, due to their lifestyles, are more exposed and impacted by its effects. It is clear, in this sense, that the functions mainly carried out by women in the care economy will be affected both by the impacts of climate change and by the mitigation and adaptation policies that countries will have to implement. Likewise, indigenous communities in Latin America, a region with a great diversity of "ways of life" and populations with predominantly agricultural and forestry activities, are closely linked to the regularity of the biosphere's cycles and, therefore, highly exposed to its variations. Increasing changes in precipitation and temperature patterns are directly affecting their livelihoods.

The indigenous peoples of Latin America face a greater risk than the industrialised population of the cities, and their vulnerability demands attention based on the specificity of their contexts. Moreover, the transformations that will be driven by the ecological transition underway at the planetary level will also imply substantial changes in their ways of life. 

 

 

However, indigenous peoples are also an important knowledge bank of symbiotic and sustainable relationship practices with the environment. The co-dependence and interdependence of human beings with other species finds in indigenous ways of life a clear example of harmony, which can serve as inspiration and learning for more entropic ways of life, such as those of industrialised societies. Likewise, the interaction between these peoples, enhanced by spaces for the socialisation of knowledge, can generate important synergies that result in very valuable contributions to the struggle for mitigation and adaptation in which the planet is immersed.

In this sense, and to this end, the voice of indigenous peoples must be heard and incorporated into decisions affecting adaptation and mitigation measures to be implemented by countries.

 

In this line, the EUROCLIMA+ programme has supported the process of prior consultation of the Regulation of the Framework Law on Climate Change (RLMCC) in Peru, through the FIIAPP, the implementing agency of the EUROCLIMA+ programme, under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, in coordination with the Ministry of Culture and seven national organisations representing indigenous peoples. This process concluded with the signing of the act of Prior Consultation, and the subsequent approval of the RLMCC which, in its Twelfth Final Complementary Provision, establishes the creation of the Platform of Indigenous Peoples confronting Climate Change (PPICC). 

Following its approval through Ministerial Resolution No. 197-2020 of the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, FIIAPP also supported the design and implementation of the PPICC, which represents a space to value, recognise and disseminate indigenous knowledge and practices that contribute to the integrated management of climate change in the country".   

EUROCLIMA+ and indigenous communities through its projects

Projects in the thematic sector "Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystems" (FBE) of the EUROCLIMA+ programme contribute to strengthening joint work with indigenous peoples  and foster inter-learning to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems and local communities in the face of climate change.

Through the experiences of these projects and their implementing entities, we contribute to: a) the articulation of local actions and commitments with those of a national and international nature; b) the integration of the reality and needs of local communities and indigenous peoples into national and regional policies; c) working with local communities and indigenous peoples to deploy joint actions to address the effects of climate change.

The recently launched publication "Indigenous Peoples' Contributions to Climate Action in Latin America: Experiences from the Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Sector" provides a synthesis of the current situation of indigenous peoples and climate action in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) where this thematic sector of EUROCLIMA+ is implemented. 

More information about:

Actions

∙       Indigenous consultation on the regulations of Peru's Climate Change law  

∙       Support to the constitution of the Indigenous Peoples' Platform for confronting Climate Change  

Related Projects:

• Communities, Forests and Biodiversity: Promoting dialogue, exchange and forest value chains to adapt to and mitigate climate change.  
• Participatory Environmental Governance integrating the challenges of climate change in the Greater American Chaco  
• Institutionalise local non-carbon benefits in national climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.  
• Non-timber resource management in the Amazon forest: a climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy from the Bolivian and Peruvian experience
• Binational project to reduce the vulnerability of the population and their livelihoods, in the face of drought and flood threats, in the border territories of Ecuador and Peru
• Electric tricycles for social transport, freight transport, and replacement of units in the municipality of San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala
  

 

We invite you to download the recent publication that has been produced at THIS LINK

About EUROCLIMA+

The implementation of EUROCLIMA+, funded by the European Union, and co-financed by the German federal government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the governments of France and Spain through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, is carried out according to the "Spirit of Team Europe" under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), and the UN Environment Programme.