Food Nature Climate Dialogue

The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum (SPFII) and the Department of Global Communications (DGC), in partnership with Cultural Survival, is organizing an Indigenous Media Zone during the 24th session of the Permanent Forum in 2025.  This will allow Indigenous media, journalists and platforms an opportunity to report on the session through Indigenous worldviews, perspectives and languages and organize media events around the theme of the session - “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: emphasizing the voices of Indigenous youth”. In line with the International Decade on Indigenous Languages, the Indigenous Media Zone will aim to encourage the participation of Indigenous media practitioners in a wide variety of Indigenous languages from different regions. Several panels and interviews will be livestreamed here: https://lnkd.in/ewUjsx4z Learn more about the Indigenous Media Zone here: https://lnkd.in/esrJ3TPh

The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum (SPFII) and the Department of Global Communications (DGC), in partnership with Cultural Survival, is organizing an Indigenous Media Zone during the 24th session of the Permanent Forum in 2025.  This will allow Indigenous media, journalists and platforms an opportunity to report on the session through Indigenous worldviews, perspectives and languages and organize media events around the theme of the session - “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: emphasizing the voices of Indigenous youth”. In line with the International Decade on Indigenous Languages, the Indigenous Media Zone will aim to encourage the participation of Indigenous media practitioners in a wide variety of Indigenous languages from different regions. Several panels and interviews will be livestreamed here: https://lnkd.in/ewUjsx4z Learn more about the Indigenous Media Zone here: https://lnkd.in/esrJ3TPh

The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum (SPFII) and the Department of Global Communications (DGC), in partnership with Cultural Survival, is organizing an Indigenous Media Zone during the 24th session of the Permanent Forum in 2025.  This will allow Indigenous media, journalists and platforms an opportunity to report on the session through Indigenous worldviews, perspectives and languages and organize media events around the theme of the session - “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: emphasizing the voices of Indigenous youth”. In line with the International Decade on Indigenous Languages, the Indigenous Media Zone will aim to encourage the participation of Indigenous media practitioners in a wide variety of Indigenous languages from different regions. Several panels and interviews will be livestreamed here: https://lnkd.in/ewUjsx4z

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.  There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, tribal communities are further disenfranchised, facing violence and forced relocation as their sovereignty and rights are ignored. ”About 90 percent of extraction is happening within 30 miles of reservations, and what these corporations do is they know exactly where tribal jurisdiction ends. So tribes have to look to other laws that don’t really regard tribal sovereignty on lands held or owned by a tribe, but pertain to cultural resources or artifacts, where then there’s a whole other realm of questions that come up. Like in northern Nevada, where lithium and other heavy metals are needed for the renewable energy transition, the mines are being built adjacent to tribal lands. So even if they are going to impact the air and water, it’s very hard for tribes to step up when tribes are underresourced." - Dov Korff-Korn, legal director at Sacred Defense Fund https://lnkd.in/gzStUTdQ

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.  There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, tribal communities are further disenfranchised, facing violence and forced relocation as their sovereignty and rights are ignored. ”The Western Shoshone Defense Project has been up and going since the early ’90s, so we’re a little over 30 years in of trying to protect our treaty territory. We’ve been dealing with gold extraction, and just trying to bring light to the harm that it causes. . . Doing this work, we’ve come to the conclusion there are no laws that really protect the things that are important: land, air, water, sun. The laws are written to give corporations the go-ahead to do whatever they choose. Free, prior, and informed consent is something that we’ve been screaming. In my view, [the United States] thumbs its nose at international law.” - Fermina Stevens, executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Prj https://lnkd.in/gzStUTdQ

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.  There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, tribal communities are further disenfranchised, facing violence and forced relocation as their sovereignty and rights are ignored.  ”There is a difference between earning consent from a community — because you’ve shaped the mine operation in the way that meets their needs and shares revenue and benefits — versus just saying, ‘I’m giving you a benefit, take it or leave it.’ Mining companies may put up money upfront for some kind of security or financial assurance for when they need to clean up after a mine closes. The Interior Department keeps those bonds, and they are supposed to be sufficient, but they rarely are in our experience. . . There are ways to do it, we just need governments to hold companies accountable.” - Aaron Mintzes, senior policy counsel at EARTHWORKS https://lnkd.in/gzStUTdQ

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.  There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, tribal communities are further disenfranchised, facing violence and forced relocation as their sovereignty and rights are ignored. ”I see all this need for critical minerals. The U.S. U.S. Department of the Interior manages 55 million acres of surface land for tribes, and 57 million acres of subsurface minerals for tribes. Yet we are the poorest people in the country. We need to go from sovereignty to significance. That’s how nations behave. We need to be significant. I believe that energy — because of the vast amount that is on or near our tribal lands across the country — is going to catapult us to significance.” - Richard Luarkie, director of the Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty Initiative, part of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines https://lnkd.in/gzStUTdQ

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.  There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, tribal communities are further disenfranchised, facing violence and forced relocation as their sovereignty and rights are ignored. ”Shareholder engagement provides a pathway for Indigenous peoples to join collaboratively with allied investors to shift corporate behavior in a way that is aligned with Indigenous peoples’ priorities and self-determined goals. This can be a critical and necessary strategy when countries’ substandard policies allow corporations to operate with impacts to Indigenous peoples, whether operating in their own jurisdictions or internationally. . . [Our Free, Prior and Informed Consent Due Diligence questionnaire] tool helps investors parse all the ways and steps that lead to a better engagement with Indigenous peoples.” - Kate Finn, founder and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute https://lnkd.in/gzStUTdQ

As countries and industries around the globe race to adopt more climate-friendly technology, demand for lithium has spiked. However, there is the critical problem of water. Mining in northern Chile “uses volumes of water comparable to the flows of the Loa River,” the longest waterway in the country and the main water source for the region, said Christian Herrera, an expert in hydrogeology in arid areas at the Catholic University of the North in Chile. The towns surrounding the Atacama region, where lithium-rich brine is pumped, have seen their already scarce drinking supplies decline as the lithium mines boom. Back in the early 2000s, Sonia Ramos, a Lickanantay healer from Chuquicamata, watched as her community lost access to its water due to the construction of a reservoir that charged farmers unaffordable prices. “From that point on, I realized that without this kind of stance and critical thinking, the next generation could be forced to migrate,” she said. In 2009, she walked 978 miles — almost the equivalent of walking from New York to Miami — to Chile’s capital city, Santiago, demanding the permanent cancellation of permits for a geothermal plant operating at the culturally significant El Tatio geysers. She went on to found Ayllus sin Fronteras, an organization “uniting people in harmony between ancestral and non-ancestral ways.” https://lnkd.in/eeBEiRqm

As countries and industries around the globe race to adopt more climate-friendly technology, demand for lithium has spiked. However, there is the critical problem of water. Mining in northern Chile “uses volumes of water comparable to the flows of the Loa River,” the longest waterway in the country and the main water source for the region, said Christian Herrera, an expert in hydrogeology in arid areas at the Catholic University of the North in Chile. The towns surrounding the Atacama region, where lithium-rich brine is pumped, have seen their already scarce drinking supplies decline as the lithium mines boom. In the past, Atacameños practiced the ritual of walking to the salt flat to gather flamingo eggs. The tradition provided food for families and facilitated trade with neighboring agricultural communities. To preserve the species, local customs dictated that some eggs should always be left in the nests. Flamingo feathers played a role in traditional ceremonies, including Talatur, a ritual still practiced today, “so that we don’t lose the water,” according to Sergio Cubillos, president of the community of Peine. Today, this ecosystem has disappeared, the landscape is desiccated, and the flamingos no longer arrive. https://lnkd.in/eeBEiRqm