Independent Indigenous leaders on climate conferences without adequate Indigenous Peoples representation

Environmental justice is more than talk. It is action. It implies the recognition and guarantee of rights. Indigenous peoples have more than the right to direct climate action, they have demonstrated and earned the moral authority.

Regarding the widely publicized COP 28 event, currently taking place in Dubai, where those with decision-making power over the fate of the planet and humanity gather; from various corners of the Earth and diverse cultures that form the garden of humanity, unable to speak to you in person, we send a message from our hearts on the subject that occupies that crucial political space in the UN.

Indigenous Peoples, from our ancestral lands, have been warning for decades about the mistake of the capitalist system that has supported the idea of development under the utilitarian and objectifying model of vital resources from nature. This model, entwining politics and the market, has given rise to an uncontrollable power that now threatens all forms of existing life.

Contrary to the vision and practice of Indigenous Peoples, this utilitarian development model has been incapable of understanding the language and codes of nature, its laws, and teachings. In its eagerness to impose the empire of modernity, it has globalized the mirage of materialistic development around categories and concepts alien to the ancient knowledge and idiosyncrasies of our peoples.

Around this utilitarian development model, a technocratic language of indicators has been created, marking the thermometer of inequalities, essentially injustices. It has established mercantilist and destructive patterns of behavior, such as the 'polluter pays' principle, forgetting ethics towards nature and responsibility towards future generations.

This utilitarian model of well-being has managed to sicken the natural environment but has also afflicted the hearts and minds of humans with the thirst for power without ethics, becoming the seeds of greed and corruption, which in turn are the causes of all forms of injustice and others' pain.

Therefore, discussions about climate change, which essentially means the Earth's ailment caused by humans, cannot be solely from the logic of those who currently hold political decision-making power and economic influence. It must also include the power of those who, for centuries, have wisely exercised the mission of being guardians of nature.

Environmental justice, much talked about lately, implies the recognition and guarantee of rights. When we associate the issue of climate change with environmental justice, it implies the prior recognition of the rights of Mother Earth; she is not a thing, she is a living being, the mother of humanity.

If the United Nations system (UN), the states that compose it, and the economic enterprises truly seek the health of the planet, the first step to healing is the recognition of the Rights of Mother Earth, binding for the states. The behavior of rulers and peoples should be in the service of dignifying all forms of life.

This is not about a simple declaration of rights as a protocol; it is about safeguarding life, reconnecting with nature, cultivating global peace. This is the path toward a biodemocracy that the modern world needs, considering the fundamental principle of RESPECT FOR NATURE, a principle that indigenous peoples continue to uphold.

Therefore, faced with the environmental emergency humanity is currently facing, from Indigenous Peoples, we make a respectful call to the United Nations (UN) system to exercise and defend its mission in defense of planetary life. Similarly, to the states and governments of the world, for politics to be governance for life around the pedagogy of the rights of Mother Earth. Finally, to economic enterprises, to realize that the best investment lies in guaranteeing the sustainability of life as the right path for the continuity of our species.

From our ancestral lands, December 1, 2023.

Children of Mother Earth.

Co-signers:

• Ñawi K. Flores, Translational leader, Runa, Ecuador

• Jayesh Joshi, Leader from Maharashtra, Bhil, India

Written by Michael Chindoy, Legal representative of the Asociación Indígena Agro Pueblos. Kamëntsá tribe, Colombia.