Indigenous groups key in climate change debate

AMBIENTE

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Wednesday it was critical for indigenous people to be included in climate change talks, saying they were among groups most affected by global warming. Two weeks before the opening of a major United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Zoellick said indigenous peoples carried a "disproportionate share of the burden of climate change effects." (...)
"Climate change exacerbates the difficulties that indigenous communities already face -- including loss of land and resources, lower human development indicators, discrimination, unemployment, and economic and political marginalization," Zoellick lamented. With their long experience in managing natural resources and adapting to climate change, he said the native and tribal groups could "also add to our knowledge and understanding of how best to cope with this complex challenge." Zoellick cited several examples of how, in different parts of the world, the knowledge and experience of indigenous peoples was helping them cope with some of the already inevitable impacts of climate change. (...)

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