This text is part of the special report The State of Quebec 2023
Indigenous knowledge systems, long devalued and marginalized by colonial regimes around the world, are now considered essential for climate-resilient development and for the protection and restoration of biodiversity. In this excerpt from a text published in The State of Quebec 2023, the authors advocate Indigenous self-determination as the prerequisite for a just and equitable climate transition.
Indigenous knowledge can influence the way climate change risks are understood and experienced, it enables the development of solutions based on local experiences and it promotes the development of governance systems that respond to the expectations and priorities of their communities. . Indeed, the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations highlights the potential of indigenous knowledge to transform the process of evaluating scientific, technical and socio-economic evidence. , as well as to reveal “new discoveries that may still be unknown to the scientific world, but have been known to communities for millennia”. To this end, several indigenous organizations around the world must regularly warn against the usurpation of indigenous knowledge by Western science to the detriment of the self-determination of indigenous peoples in matters of climate change. A context in which the realization of reconciliation efforts with them is difficult, if not impossible.
Although indigenous peoples have assumed the role of guardians for millennia, as evidenced by the fact that 80% of the world’s biodiversity is found in traditional indigenous territories, they are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Yet the unequal power dynamics inherent in colonialism and neo-extractivism have long devalued Indigenous knowledge systems and practices. They have excluded indigenous participation from decision-making that concerns them (that of women, in particular, through the imposition of policies that exclude them, for example in Canada) and have criminalized the movements of struggle for self-determination. To this end, Indigenous activists and indigenous and environmental rights groups have been put under close surveillance and have had their protests classified as threats and “civil unrest” by the Canadian government of Stephen Harper, on behalf of of national security.
Climate justice initiatives explicitly address these multidimensional distribution issues in the context of climate change adaptation. However, coping strategies can deepen social inequalities, especially between genders, unless explicit efforts are made to change these unequal power dynamics, including creating spaces to foster inclusive decision-making. Using indigenous knowledge can help overcome the combined challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation and can help defend the right of people to live fulfilling lives. Moreover, the contribution of indigenous peoples to the reflections and solutions relating to the socio-climatic crisis is fundamental. The petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) seeking redress for human rights violations resulting from the impacts of climate change, filed by Sheila Watt-Cloutier in 2005, established the critical link between climate change , human rights and well-being. In 2010, the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth highlighted the need to respect indigenous sovereignty and their right to free consent, prior to the right to be informed, as central elements in the fight against the climate emergency. Born in November 2012 under the leadership of three indigenous women and a non-indigenous woman, the Idle No More movement challenges the Canadian government’s omnibus law C-45 which would undermine consultation rights, weaken the protection of rivers and erode the environmental assessment process to which the government must normally submit for the development of the territory. The movement, which resonates even internationally, has helped galvanize the indigenous community around reflections on ecological stability as a condition of social stability and on the role of indigenous peoples in the design, management and monitoring of initiatives. related to conservation and climate transition.
About the authors:
Ioana Radu and Suzy Basilprofessors at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue
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