Climate Change and Biodiversity: The Impact on Indigenous Peoples

Throughout history, indigenous peoples’ human rights have been openly violated and continue to be violated and ignored to this day. This has created certain disparities that adversely impact their health and livelihoods. Notably, this is especially true in the context of climate change. According to Jay Williams, “climate change poses a catastrophic threat to indigenous peoples . . . [and] the livelihoods and cultural identities of more than 370 million indigenous peoples of North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific are already under threat.”1 It is also estimated that since the 1970s, over 150,000 deaths have been attributed to climate change.2 And yet, this population whose suffering we have often turned a blind eye to may be the best equipped to respond to the consequences of climate change and should be given adequate support to be at the center of discussions to combat it.

Indigenous Peoples’ Health Disparities and Human Rights

Indigenous peoples around the world experience numerous health disparities. This population has high rates of maternal mortality, infant mortality, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, drug abuse, alcoholism, depression, and suicide.3 There is also a lower life expectancy for indigenous peoples when compared to non-indigenous peoples.4 In some places, like Australia, this gap can be 20 years.5 Indigenous peoples also experience high rates of infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and often lack access to medical resources for treatment.6 In addition to living in poverty, many indigenous peoples also are subject to malnutrition. Their poor nutrition can be impacted by degrading of their environment, loss of land, and loss of biodiversity.7 Some of the health disparities indigenous peoples face stem from their rights not being recognized or being overlooked. For example, there is evidence that “historical colonization and dispossession of indigenous peoples” impacts their mental health.8

Recognition of human rights can play a large role in the health of indigenous peoples. Importantly, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was not adopted until 2007.9 Even so, some countries, including the United States, voted against the declaration and did not officially support it until many years later.10 Further, many of the declaration’s rights are being violated as it relates to climate change.11

The following 11 out of the 36 enumerated rights are the rights that are most impacted:

Article 3 is the right to self-determination;
Article 8 deals with no forced assimilation or dispossession of land;
Article 10 also states that “indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their land or territories;”
Article 11 protects the right to practice culture traditions;
Article 18 deals with participating in decision making;
Article 19 says good faith must be used to get indigenous peoples’ “free, prior and informed consent” on decisions that impact them;
Article 24 recognized the right of indigenous peoples to have the highest possible standard of health;
Article 26 covers land ownership rights and self-control over their lands;
Article 29 touches on conservation and environmental protection rights and prevention of hazardous contamination to indigenous lands;
Article 32 gives the right to develop strategies for their lands; and
Article 39 asserts the right of support for indigenous peoples – both financially and technically.12

Climate change’s impacts and many proposed strategies to combat it negatively impact many of these rights. Climate change’s impacts on the homes of indigenous peoples—such as ice melting in the Artic from rising temperatures and flooding and saltwater intrusion in low-lying coastal areas from rising sea level—are leading to imminent displacement which affects articles three, 10, 11, and 29.13

Article 24 is impacted because climate change is significantly affecting access to “clean water, food, shelter, and other basic human needs.”14 Even efforts to mitigate climate change affect the rights enumerated in articles eight, 10, 18, 19, 26, 29, and 32 when indigenous peoples are forced to resettle without any input or consent.15 Hydroelectric projects and biofuel projects can displace local indigenous communities by taking their land without their consent. These projects can also negatively impact their health through destroying the ecosystems, which creates water scarcity and food shortages.16

The mitigation practices can also “have a disproportionate effect on indigenous peoples . . . who may suffer greater hardship due to the increased price of energy, fuel, and goods.”17 In turn, this then affects indigenous peoples’ health and the social determinants of health by “magnifying already existing problems” and creating new ones.18 Burger and Wentz state that the “combined effects of higher average temperatures and higher humidity will also create significant health risks.”19 Additionally, the higher temperatures can lead to an “increased risk of food-, water-, and vector-borne diseases” as well as an increased risk of health issues from heat waves and fires.20

Climate Change and Biodiversity

Burger and Wentz states that “[a]nthropogenic climate change is the largest, most pervasive threat to the natural environment and human rights of our time.”21 Climate change has already caused rises in global temperatures, changes in precipitation and snowfall, increases in extreme weather events, escalations in ice melting, changes in the geographic spread of plants, and increases in new reservoirs for vector-borne, water-borne, and food-borne diseases.22 If no changes are made, climate change will continue to cause similar results.23 These environmental changes lead to a wide range of consequences including but not limited to droughts, floods, fires, heatwaves and heat-related illness, rises in sea levels and glacier melting, biodiversity losses through extinction and habitat loss, and decreases in agriculture yields.

This poses a direct danger to indigenous peoples around the world because their homes are fragile ecosystems that contain a large portion of the world’s biodiversity.24 These ecosystems are also some of the most affected by climate change “due to their close connection to the natural world.”25 Indigenous peoples often heavily rely on the biodiversity and natural resources present in their lands for many things such as “the survival of their physical, spiritual and cultural existence.”26 Therefore, the changes to their home ecosystems and loss of biodiversity interferes with indigenous peoples’ social structures and cultural practices in addition to their health.27

General Impact on Indigenous Peoples

Because biodiversity influences what plants and animals can live on traditional lands, the loss of biodiversity that results from climate change will negatively impact the ability of indigenous peoples to hunt, grow crops, and fish.28 Climate change also causes indigenous peoples’ traditional lands to experience “desertification, deforestation and flooding.”29 The effects of climate change also create new conditions and risks, such as fires and coastline loss, that can cause the lands to no longer to be habitable and force indigenous peoples to migrate elsewhere.

Temperature changes already have and will continue to cause certain plants to change growing patterns and locations.30 Additionally, some plants and animals will not be able to adapt to the changing conditions and will become extinct.31 This is a huge issue when the plant or animal is relied on by indigenous peoples for food, medicine, or cultural and/or economic use.32 Similarly, crop yield, loss of species, drought, and rising sea levels adversely affect indigenous peoples’ water and food security. This makes malnutrition and access to water major concerns for indigenous peoples.33 Many of these changes also negatively impact the economic opportunities of indigenous peoples because they often rely on forests, fish, livestock, livestock products, and agriculture production for income.34

These factors exacerbate the chronic stress experienced by indigenous peoples. For example, food insecurity and species extinction will impact access to traditional foods, such as salmon, shellfish, other marine animals, and crops like maize and wheat. Consequently, indigenous peoples may have to travel far distances to buy processed food from stores which could lead to further malnutrition. Additionally, this can impact indigenous peoples’ mental health because the inability to have traditional foods can feel like a loss of their culture.35

Furthermore, physical safety can become a major issue when indigenous peoples are inundated with severe weather events like floods, cyclones, and forest fires. Changes in precipitation and melting of glaciers causes the sea level to rise, which affects the safety of indigenous peoples who live near coastlines.36 The sea level rise also impacts water security issues because it can contaminate sources of freshwater.37 Indigenous peoples are also more likely to be impacted by the spread of diseases like malaria, cholera, and dengue fever and have increased mortality because they already lack access to medical resources.38 Finally, due to their relationship with the environment, for indigenous peoples “damage to the land, appropriation of land, and spatial restrictions all constitute direct assaults on the person”39 and therefore climate change in and of itself is an attack on indigenous peoples that can greatly impact their mental health and identity.

The direct and indirect effects of climate change on indigenous peoples discussed above are related to a plethora of human rights issues. The loss of biodiversity can impact indigenous peoples’ right to practice cultural traditions40 and conservation.41 Precipitation changes, increases in temperature, rises in sea level, increases in deforestation and ocean acidification, and similar effects of climate change impact indigenous peoples’ land-related rights42 due to the degrading of and loss of their traditional lands. Additionally, the resulting droughts, famine, species loss, water and food insecurity, and rise in infectious and non-infectious diseases impact the right of indigenous peoples to have the highest possible standard of health43 as well as the right to water, sanitation, food, adequate standard of living.44

The Impacts Are Location and Community Specific

Williams states “[s]cientific evidence suggests that the livelihoods and cultural identities of the more than 370 million indigenous peoples of North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific are already under threat” from the impacts of climate change.45 Therefore, these impacts and human rights’ violations that indigenous peoples experience are location and community specific. For example, in Africa, previous studies predicted that by 2020 up to 250 million people would experience water stress and this number is projected to grow to up to 600 million people by 2050.46 Africa has already been subject to severe famine and drought, therefore precipitation changes and decreasing crop yields will make water and food insecurity worse.47 Rising sea levels are also a major concern because 25% of the population live near the coast.48 In addition, in the next 50 years, over 60 million people in Africa will be at an increased risk for malaria, dengue fever, and cholera.49 For example, the “Samburu and Maasai peoples are the first communities to face and feel the effects of climate change, due to [their] closeness with the environment and distinct ways of livelihood that depend on access to land, natural resources and sustainable development.”50

In Asia, decreasing crop yields could cause 266 million people to be at risk of hunger in the next 60 years.51 Water stress is also a major issue because climate change puts one billion people’s freshwater sources in danger.52 Rising sea level will also cause one million people along Asia’s coasts to be at risk of coastal flooding and the warmer water temperatures will allow vector- and water-borne diseases to have a wider geographical spread causing people to experience a higher risk of cholera and other diseases.53 Asia has a higher risk of forest fires, coral reef dying, and extinction of species.54 Indigenous communities in the Himalayas are already experiencing some of the negative effects such as grazing pastures drying out due to lack of water and mosquito rates increasing due to warmer temperatures.55

In Australia and New Zealand, the 0.4-0.7°C increased warming that has occurred since 1950 has led to record heatwaves, intense droughts, and sea level rise that “resulted in increasing stresses on water supplies and agriculture, natural ecosystems, reduced seasonal snow cover, and glacier shrinkage and substantial economic losses caused by droughts, floods, fire, tropical cyclones and hail.”56 This affects indigenous peoples, especially in the north, such as communities in the “Torres Strait Islands . . . are vulnerable to sea-level rise, coastal erosion and storm surges; . . . Cape York communities [are] facing biodiversity loss in tropical rainforests and increased coral bleaching.”57

In Europe, 44 million people in the southern and eastern areas will experience water stress and declines in agricultural production.58 Fires and droughts are expected to increase due to hotter, longer summers.59 These warmer conditions will also cause heat waves and risk of diseases, both vector-borne and food-borne.60 Over one million people across Europe will experience rising sea levels and flooding each year.61 Wilbanks states that “indigenous societies in polar regions and settlements close to glaciers in Latin America and in Europe are already experiencing threats to their traditional livelihoods.”62

In Central and South America, upwards of 85 million people will be at risk of hunger and upwards of 70 million will have water stress.63 Countries in this area are already experiencing severe weather events, glacier melting, and deforestation.64 Agricultural lands and coastal areas are likely to be negatively impacted. Indigenous peoples are also especially vulnerable in this area. According to Williams, “10 of Colombia’s 92 indigenous groups were in danger of extinction and . . . 42% of those groups may only contain between 50 and 2000 people.”65 Additionally, in some South American countries indigenous peoples are the most at risk for the increases in the spread of infectious diseases.66

North America will face water shortages and allocation issues, worse fire seasons, increases in “heat-related mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and infectious diseases . . . including Lyme disease and West Nile virus.”67 These impacts will affect over a million indigenous peoples who “live on or near reservations which depend heavily on agriculture, forest products and tourism.”68 Most of the areas in Alaska that are at risk from permafrost thawing, changing freezing cycles, and decreasing sea ice thickness are the land of indigenous peoples and the resulting loss or inhabitability of the land may require relocating to new, safer areas.69,70 For example, the indigenous community in Shishmeref, Alaska, is experiencing coastal erosion that is forcing them to relocate.71 Also, Field states “[a]mong the most climate-sensitive North American communities are those of indigenous populations dependent on one or a few natural resources.”72

In the Artic and Antarctic, ice shrinkage impacts freshwater sources, physical safety, and marine life, and the changing ocean conditions will negatively affect both humans and animals who live there.73 For 400,000 indigenous peoples, food security will become an issue since they rely on “hunting polar bears, walrus, seals and caribou, herding reindeer, fishing and gathering.”74 Finally, many indigenous peoples who live on small islands are at a high risk of sea-level rise, extreme weather events, freshwater loss, and increased transmission of a host of diseases, including “malaria, dengue, filariasis, schistosomiasis, and food- and water-borne diseases . . . diarrhoeal diseases, heat stress, skin diseases, acute respiratory infections and asthma.”75 Based on the above data, it would seem like climate change itself is what is threatening indigenous peoples and therefore it can be resolved by implementing efforts to combat climate change. Unfortunately, as explored in the next section, current efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change also violate indigenous peoples’ human rights.

Impact of Certain Strategies of Combating Climate Change

While climate change has done enough to negatively impact indigenous peoples’ health and human rights, some of our strategies to respond to climate change can also exacerbate the situation. Specifically, this can be seen in monocropping for biofuel and its related deforestation.76 Deforestation is an important issue at the intersection of climate change and indigenous peoples’ rights and health because it releases stored carbon and contaminates underground water and local sources of food (fish, animals, plants) and it also prevents carbon sequestration.77 Tauli-Corpuz and Tamang state that one of the major causes of deforestation was the “failure of governments and other institutions to recognize and respect the rights on indigenous peoples . . . in regards to their territorial lands, forests, and other resources.”78

Further, monocropping, which involves forests being turned into plantations, is a major threat to indigenous peoples because “60 million indigenous people are completely dependent on forests, 350 million people are highly dependent and 1.2 billion have some dependence on forests for their livelihood.”79 Indigenous peoples have been kicked off their land to allow others to develop these plantations – even the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme have taken and deforested indigenous lands to create tree plantations, while keeping the communities out of decisions.80 This violated indigenous peoples’ land rights, which include the right to not be forcefully removed, the right to ownership of land and not have their land dispossessed, and the right of to make decisions about their lands and give free consent.81 The violations will continue to get worse because monocropping makes up a large part of the economy and continue to expand due to biofuel demands.82

Monocropping’s negative impact on the human rights of indigenous peoples can also be seen in the language used in monocropping. The plantations and natural forests are both part of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s definition of forests.83 Since the plantations are so homogenous and often contain non-native species, many indigenous peoples argue that these should be considered industrial agriculture crops, not forest ecosystems.84 Continuing to call them forests actually “obscures the real rate of deforestation and . . . virtually casts a blind eye to the adverse social and environmental impacts of plantations.”85 This definition issue is extremely important because it allows places with new plantations to say they met environmental sustainability goals because they can use the plantations to meet the “proportion of land area covered by forests” indicator.86 The debate over plantation categorization can also be seen as a human rights-related issue because indigenous peoples are not part of this decision making process.

Monocropping also violates indigenous peoples’ rights to develop their own strategies related to conservation and environmental protection. This is especially visible with oil palm (Elaeis guineenis) monocropping.87 Indigenous peoples have grown oil palm before and have been doing so in a way that protects the environment.88 Currently large scale monocropping, i.e., plantations, is the favored industry method of growing oil palm and is the “fastest growing monocropping plantations in the tropics.”89 Because it can also be used for biofuel and to store carbon, oil palm plantations will continue to expand.

Monocropping not only threatens indigenous peoples’ rights because it takes their land and their right to develop conservation strategies, but it also threatens indigenous peoples’ right to health. Many studies have shown that violation of indigenous peoples’ land rights and the taking of traditional lands has led to “food insecurity, severe health problems, including increasing malnutrition and increased mortality; changes in disease ecology resulting in high incidences of diseases; increase rates of sexually-transmitted diseases due to increasing prostitution in plantations or logging estates.”90 The removal of traditional lands also prevents indigenous peoples from continuing their traditional sustainability and conservation practices. Additionally, although plantation advocates claim plantations improve poverty and unemployment conditions, there is evidence of “exploitative and discriminatory working conditions”91 and power imbalances between indigenous peoples and plantation officials, which is a direct violation of Article 17 (right to not be exploited or discriminated in employment).92

Strategies Indigenous Peoples Use To Combat Climate Change

Although indigenous peoples have suffered greatly due to climate change, its related human rights issues, and subsequent health impacts, they have responded to the climate change effects they are experiencing by using strategies informed by their traditional knowledge.93 In fact, they have been responding to environmental changes for centuries.94 Notably, this can be seen in the indigenous communities in the Himalayas.

The Himalayas are a hotspot for biodiversity and have already experienced catastrophic effects of climate change,95 such as glacier melting, which impacts downstream water sources, landscape hazards, and biodiversity.96 The local indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge can be vital in recognizing early impacts of climate change, i.e., recording ice thickness, crop yield and quality, blossom timing, levels of pests, and disease.97 This knowledge has also helped them adapt to the challenges they already experience such as mitigating floods with retaining walls at rivers and using rocks to help stabilize slopes.98

The Lachen Valley in the Himalayas is home to two groups of indigenous peoples, the Lachenpas and Dokpas.99 Both move up and down the valley’s elevation with the seasons and rely on the biodiversity in the area.100 The Dokpas are also yak and sheep herders.101 The two groups have experienced reduced snowfall, changes in rainfall, decrease grazing pasture quality, changes in location of species growing, and increases in mosquitos.102

The indigenous peoples have their own institution called the Dzumsa that has helped the communities adapt to climate change “by regulating resource use in a way that prohibits over use and provides social, economic, and environmental security to the people.”103 The Dzumsa use traditional knowledge to make many decisions that affect the community such as managing grazing pastures, selecting which crops to plant, and picking harvest dates.104 The Dzumsa have also used fixed pricing to combat some of the climate change consequences the communities are experiencing.105 For example, sheep have been dying due to decreasing grazing pasture quality.106 This greatly affects the Dokpas because they rely on sheep and sheep products for their livelihoods, so “the Dzumsa banned the slaughter and sale of sheep for 3 years”107 in order to keep sheep from dwindling further and to stop prices from rising.108 Unfortunately, not many indigenous communities have this type of institution and there is only so much a local institution like the Dzumsa can do without additional support.

Conclusion and Recommended Solutions

The disrespect of indigenous peoples’ human rights and health consequences surrounding climate change is enormous. Indigenous peoples often live in the places that are affected by climate change first and face the most extreme consequences of climate change.109 This has led to exacerbating the health disparities this population already faces and climate change has its own negative health consequences. Most notably, climate change may cause food insecurity, water insecurity, disease spread, housing, and other social determinants.110 The way climate change compounds indigenous peoples’ human rights issues is especially appalling because they often are the ones who respect the environment and are best equipped to respond to the effects of climate change using their traditional knowledge.

The only way to fully respect indigenous peoples’ rights is by bringing them to the center of discussions about climate change and providing them with support. This would allow them to oversee decisions regarding their lands and other rights in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Additionally, by giving them support, indigenous peoples would be better able to carry out their traditional knowledge-informed strategies for mitigating climate change, and in turn help stop future damage to their lands and health. Finally, by respecting indigenous peoples’ rights, we are putting them in a better position to combat the health impacts they are experiencing, both on an individual level and community level.

Christina Grochowski is a first-year student at St. John’s University School of Law.

Endnotes

1 Jay Williams, The impact of climate change on indigenous people – the implications for the cultural, spiritual, economic and legal rights of indigenous people, 16 Int’l J. Hum. Rts. 648-688 (2011), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642987.2011.632135.

2 Tenzing Ingty & K.S. Bawa, Climate Change and Indigenous People, in Climate Change in Sikkim: Pattern, Impacts, and Initiatives 275, 277 (M. L. Arrawatia & Sandeep Tambe eds., 2012), http://www.sikkimforest.gov.in/climate-change-in-sikkim/climate%20change%20in%20sikkim%20-%20patterns%20impacts%20and%20initiatives.htm.

3 Health, United Nations, https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/mandatedareas1/health.html (last visited Nov. 30, 2023).

9 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations, https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html (last visited Nov. 20, 2023). (last visited Nov. 20, 2023).

10 Id.