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DAILY BULLETIN – DAY TWO
22 April 2008
UN PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES - UNPFII
Produced for the Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia Compiled by FAIRA on behalf of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Caucus at the UNPFII
CONTENTS
- Australian Aboriginal Caucus Calls for Urgent Action to Save River Ecosystems
- First Aboriginal Caucus Meeting Convened
- Join the Queue
- Pacific Indigenous Must be Involved in Climate Change Discussions
- Australian Government Backs Indigenous Role in Biodiversity
- NITV Covers PFII Session
Australian Aboriginal Caucus Calls for Urgent Action to Save River Ecosystems
The Aboriginal Caucus took the floor of the UN Permanent Forum meeting today to speak on the impacts of climate change on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.
Bev Manton, chairperson of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, spoke on behalf of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Caucus to call for the full participation of indigenous peoples in the design and delivery of measure to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and maximise the opportunities for indigenous sustainable development in meeting the challenges.
Ms Manton said 'climate change raises distinct challenges for indigenous peoples, our cultures and our lands and resources'.
'It poses a threat to the health, cultures and livelihoods of indigenous peoples.
'This occurs in coastal and flood prone areas, salt inundation of freshwater supplies, changes to mangroves and fire regimes, coastal erosion and rising sea levels as well as for those indigenous communities affected by long term drought and desertification, among other impacts,' she said.
The caucus statement also considered the positive side of increased attention to climate change and the efforts to combat rising levels of pollutants in the environment.
Recognising that Aboriginal people have control of 16% of the Australian land mass and a large proportion of the waters, the statement pointed out that Aboriginal people are also gaining their rights to care for country.
This means people are exercising their customary obligations and rights to care for country, and are strengthening the inter- generational transfer of knowledge and identity.
At the same time, caring for country generates new economic opportunities and overcome negative social trends such as the migration of our peoples from their lands to urban areas.
The Aboriginal Caucus called for a mechanism to be established to monitor the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples, mindful of socio-economic limitations and the spiritual attachment to lands and waters.
First Aboriginal Caucus Meeting Convened
Today the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegations attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues convened the first of the daily caucus meetings during the UNPFII session.
Aden Ridgeway, with the New South Wales Land Council, was chosen by consensus as chairperson of the caucus.
Aden was an experienced delegate having attended previous PFII meetings and other UN meetings on indigenous issues, and was familiar with the tradition and advantages of our caucus meetings at the United Nations.
The priority of the first meeting was the preparation of the initial statements to be delivered in the Forum meetings, especially the statements on Climate Change, the agenda item under discussion for Tuesday.
By prior arrangement, all delegations from Australia were working to deliver collective statements on behalf of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Caucus and the Pacific Indigenous Caucus, under the various agenda items.
These collective statements are given more priority by the Forum and are allocated more time, usually five minutes, for delivery.
This caucus statement on Climate Change was delivered later in the day in the Forum by Bev Manton, chairperson of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, (see separate article) on behalf of the caucus.
The other urgent statement under discussion was for the agenda item called 'Discussions on the Pacific Region', which was due for tomorrow (Wednesday, 23 April) afternoon.
For efficiency in working during the Forum session, our delegates compiled a list of online contacts so that draft documents and other communications could be quickly circulated.
The caucus meetings are to be held each morning at 8.30 am.
The meetings are held in the UN cafeteria as there is no space made available at UN headquarters for meetings such as ours, but the advantage is that a working breakfast is possible.
A preparatory meeting of the delegates from Australia was also held last Sunday to help the delegates prepare for the UN accreditations and procedures.
Join the Queue
As was anticipated there was a long queue of indigenous people waiting on Monday morning to go through the UN security checks and the meeting accreditation process.
The queue began as early as 6.30 am, with the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and National Native Title Council delegations arriving very early to successfully avoid the long delays.
Fortunately, although our planning was an important factor, most of the delegates from Australia had cleared the queues by 9.00 am.
The long queue was still in place at noon, as people waited patiently to 'be processed' for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The secretariat for the PFII had received 3,000 applications for participation.
The conference room was packed to capacity during the opening speeches with many delegates standing in the available spaces at the back of the conference room and the public gallery.
The conference room had a seating capacity for 600 people but this demand has been far exceeded.
The UN security moved the unseated delegates to the adjacent conference room where a screen had been hastily set up to watch the proceedings.
Pacific Indigenous Must be Involved in Climate Change Discussions
Fiu Elisara, Pacific Caucus, said indigenous peoples saw the negative effects of climate change on land and marine resources as a matter of life and death.
Many had been forced to leave their lands, even if, as sovereign peoples, they had a right to exist as peoples according to the United Nations Charter.
The immense coastline in the Pacific region made it particularly
vulnerable to tidal surges and other consequences of global warming.
Mainstay food sources, such as sugarcane, yams, taro, banana and cassava were being lost to extreme temperature changes.
Potable water sources were being inundated by sea water.
He said dealing with the effect of climate change would prove expensive, and as such, it would be better to act preventively.
Not only that, the Clean Development Mechanisms Fund of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had financed projects that had caused the deaths of indigenous peoples who refused to relinquish their territories for those purposes.
Indigenous peoples were concerned by the hubris of industrialized nations, who promoted emissions reductions in developing countries as a precondition for taking responsibility for carbon emissions at home.
They must demonstrate leadership by reducing emissions within their own borders through deep and hard targets.
He said the Pacific Caucus recommended that indigenous peoples be integrated into climate change forums as valued stakeholders and experts.
The Forum must undertake, in conjunction with other human rights mechanisms, to study the ways to align climate change strategies and projects with indigenous peoples’ rights.
The Forum must also actively participate in forthcoming Climate Change Convention processes, while acting in partnership with the secretariats of the Convention on Climate Change and Biodiversity to provide financial support to developing countries, so they can address climate change without diverting funds needed for development purposes.
Australian Government Backs Indigenous Role in Biodiversity
The Australian Government affirmed its commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity and acknowledged the role of indigenous people in environment and biodiversity protection.
In a statement read to the Permanent Forum, Shirley MacPherson of the Indigenous Land Corporation said the Forum 'can be assured that the Australian Government will continue to look to indigenous people for their invaluable knowledge and perspective on the environment'.
The Australian Government highlighted that its 'Working on Country'
program will generate training and jobs for indigenous rangers to manage indigenous lands and waters.
The Government envisaged that 400 indigenous rangers would be working on country in three years time.
In a later comment, PFII Rapporteur Mick Dodson asked the Government what will happen to the 7,000 jobs that are potentially lost through the loss of the CDEP program in the Northern Territory and whether the new ranger positions would adequately compensate for the loss of these jobs.
He asked that the Government take the question on notice and respond in due time.
Ms MacPherson stated that the Indigenous Protected Areas cover 89 million acres and that the protection of the natural and cultural heritage of these areas provide important opportunities for the Aboriginal people to consider carbon abatement and biodiversity protection measures.
'An important element of the programs I have outlined includes the recording and passing on of traditional knowledge to a new generation of indigenous land managers.
'The Australian Government actively supports indigenous communities in recording their traditional knowledge and, with their consent, applying it to contemporary resource management settings,' said Ms MacPherson.
Ms MacPherson said the Australian Government backed the role of an indigenous advisory committee to advise on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conversation Act 1999, and acknowledged the Chairperson of the committee, Ms Melissa George, who had been unable to attend the Permanent Forum meeting.
NITV Covers PFII Session
The National Indigenous Television has arranged to give daily coverage of the Permanent Forum meeting.
A New York media team has been commissioned to provide daily news coverage of the Aboriginal participation in the Forum as well as record documentary footage of the delegations at work.
The NITV hopes to put together a documentary of the two weeks in New York to give local communities in Australia a greater appreciation and understanding of the work of the United Nations and a clear account of the Aboriginal delegations at work in an international setting.
Further information can be found at www.nitv.org.au/blacktracks.
ENDS
