Abstract
Indigenous peoples nowadays are still facing the dramatic impacts that constitute the legacy of the colonial period. On top of such impacts, climate change is already affecting Indigenous communities around the globe by causing severe impacts which alter the normal functioning of ecosystems. In addition, Indigenous peoples are being systematically targeted by settler States, corporations and other private actors when they try to defend their rights. This chapter provides an introduction to such matters and to the issues around Indigenous peoples and climate justice. The chapter will also focus on the book methodology, fieldwork methodology, and will provide an overview of the book’s contents.
[T]he responsibility of researchers and academics is not simply to share surface information (pamphlet knowledge) but to share the theories and analyses which inform the way knowledge and information are constructed and represented.
—Smith (2021, p. 17)
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Notes
- 1.
See also Cultural Survival website at https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/indigenous-peoples-sue-bolsonaro-hague-genocide-and-get-ready-mass-mobilizations-brazil, last accessed September 2022.
- 2.
For more information on this case, consult the International Rights of Nature Tribunal at https://www.rightsofnaturetribunal.org/tribunals/glasgow-tribunal-2021/, last accessed September 2022.
- 3.
The Glasgow Pact calls for a phase-down of coal, and phase-out of fossil fuels. This is the first time that coal has been explicitly mentioned in any COP decision. However, the final wording of the pact was forced by a group of countries led by India and China, advocating for the use of “phase-down” instead of “phase-out”. The initial language on this provision was much more direct. It called on all parties to accelerate phase-out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies. Despite the less direct language, the inclusion of language on reduction of coal power is being seen as a significant movement forward (Sinha, 2021).
- 4.
Glasgow Climate Pact, FCCC/PA/CMA/2021/L.16, November 2021.
- 5.
Cosmovision refers, in general terms, to the worldview of a human group as a key concept for understanding otherness and delving into diversity between cultures. The cosmovision of a people is a structured vision in which the members of a community coherently combine their notions about the environment in which they live and about the cosmos in which they place human life. This world view represents one of the elements that identify each community and that manifest themselves through a set of beliefs, customs and traditions handed down by their ancestors that make up their own culture. In Indigenous cosmovision, the human being is not the centre of the universe but symbolizes just an element of the necessary balance with Mother Nature. However, each Indigenous people have their own cosmovision: consequently, it is understood that there is not a single Indigenous cosmovision but that there are different cosmovision belonging to each Indigenous people. However, some common principles governing Indigenous cosmovision have been identified. Among them, the sacredness of the territories, the extreme relevance of spirituality and the conception that all elements of the world have life stand out (Reguart Segarra, 2021, pp. 70–72).
- 6.
However, other important initiatives such as the International Rights of Nature Tribunal are emerging. For more information on the past processes footnote 2.
- 7.
This is because even an Indigenous researcher can adopt Western methods to conduct research. As a consequence of colonization, perpetrated by European nations before, and settler states after, Westernized education is the prevailing method in schools and universities.
- 8.
CLSs have taken inspiration and applied different types of legal philosophies, such as Marxist studies and feminist studies. For example, in the early production of CLSs studies, Horwitz focused on doctrinal issues related to private law, while Klare and Stone focused on labour law (Horwitz, 1977; Klare, 1978; Stone, 1981). Other early authors of critical legal scholarship have dealt with civil rights (Freeman, 1978) and welfare rights (Simon, 1978), as well as more theoretical debates in jurisprudence (Kennedy, 1976; Unger, 1983), feminist issues (Mackinnon, 1982), and law and economics (Kelman, 1979).
- 9.
The last available data on the alphabetization of Yanesha communities dates to the 2007. See also: INEI, Censos Nacionales 2007, Resumen Ejecutivo, available at inei.gob.pe.
- 10.
Base de datos pueblos indígenas originarios, at bdpi.cultura.gob.pe.
- 11.
INEI, Censos nacionales 2017, at censos2017.inei.gob.pe. The INEI database does not offer specific information regarding Yanesha people. It is possible, by selecting the filter “por su costrumbres y su antepasados usted se considera” and the filter “región Pasco”, where Yanesha communities live, to have the statistics of people who consider themselves as Quechua/Aymara; Amazon native; Other indigenous origin; afroperuvian/afrodescendant; white; mixed; other. According to the INEI database, more than 10,000 individuals in the Pasco region consider themselves as Amazonian native. By applying the filter “lengua con el que aprendiò hablar”, the 0.55% of people (485 individuals) living in the region learnt Yanesha as first language.
- 12.
Municipalidad Provincial de Oxapampa, at peru.gob.pe.
- 13.
Chirapaq, Chirapaq y el pueblo yanesha ratifican alianza, 2018, available at chirapaq.org.pe.
- 14.
Chirapaq, Yanesha women revive traditional dyeing with innovative designs, at chirapaq.org.pe.
- 15.
A full list of communities is available on the Oxapampa province website, at peru.gob.pe.
- 16.
The extended name of the programme is “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks”.
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Giacomini, G. (2022). Introduction. In: Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice. Energy, Climate and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09508-5_1
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