Indigenous Peoples on the frontlines promoting the stewardship of the earth’s resources

Indigenous People’s land contains 80 per cent of the earth’s biodiversity. Indigenous People contribute enormously to the ecological and sustainable management of their resources. Oak believes we can learn a lot from their way of life.

“It is important to reflect on indigenous peoples of the world,” says Joan Carling, an advocate for Indigenous People. “Before the world’s states were put in place, Indigenous Peoples already had sustainable management systems. We can learn a lot from them.”

“The values we carry demonstrate how we are actually playing the stewardship role of protecting mother earth, not only for us, but for the future generations and for humanity,” says Joan.

Joan Carling is co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, former Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She also works closely with Tebtebba, an international organisation born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples respected, protected and fulfilled worldwide. Tebtebba sees the importance of involving indigenous women and youth, and to this end commits to ensuring that 50 per cent of the participants in all its efforts are women.

Oak’s grant to Tebtebba is unique in that it emphasises climate finance, which involves flows of funds from developed to developing nations to help poorer countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.

This grant falls under Oak’s Environment Programme strategy. Oak’s grant to Tebtebba is unique in that it emphasises climate finance, which involves flows of funds from developed to developing nations to help poorer countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change. In addition the grant is aligned with the new Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) that Oak launched in 2016. If you would like more about CJRF and how climate change is affecting people personally, visit its website or check out this article and videos.

You can also watch this video of Joan talking about her work: