How Indigenous peoples face climate change
1 Apr 2025 22:24
(The Associated Press) Indigenous communities are often among the first to feel the impacts of climate change. Rising temperatures, rising seas and extreme weather events threaten their traditional ways of life, food systems and lands. In the face of this, Indigenous groups are finding ways to adapt and even some solutions to some of the problems that come with climate change. This shouldn't be surprising. Indigenous groups point out they have been successful stewards of lands for thousands of years. The AP climate team has reported on challenges these groups deal with, from the Amazon to the Arctic, and how they have combined tradition with innovation to respond.
Here are some examples: Struggling to Protect the Future of Spearfishing The Ojibwe and other Indigenous people are fighting to keep this way of life vibrant. As a result of warming waters, increasingly variable seasonal changes and lakeshore development, walleye numbers in some lakes are dwindling. Losing this species would mean losing a food source for community members, a sovereign right to fish, and a deep connection to tradition and nature. A member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, spears a walleye by headlamp on the Chippewa Flowage Monday, near Hayward, Wis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Amazon's Ashninka Tribe Restore their TerritoryThe self-sufficiency of Apiwtxa village in Brazil, which comes from growingcrops and protecting its forest, is now a model for an ambitious project to help 12 Indigenous territories in the western Amazon about the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. The Organisation of Indigenous People of the Jurua River got a $6.8 million grant from the Amazon Fund, the world's largest initiative to combat rainforest deforestation. With Apiwtxa as the model, the grant is geared toward improving Indigenous land management with an emphasis on food production, cultural strengthening and forest surveillance. Apolima-Arara Indigenous men pose for a picture during the annual celebration recognising the Ashaninka territory in the Apiwtxa village, Acre state. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Wayuu People in Northern Colombia
Prolonged droughts, intensified by climate change, have worsened water scarcity, straining Wayuu's already limited access to drinking water and resources for livestock and agriculture. Climate change is rapidly altering the way of life for the Wayuu, a semi-nomadic Indigenous group living in the arid La Guajira region that spans northern Colombia and Venezuela.
As rainfall becomes more erratic, food insecurity rises, with crops failing and livestock struggling to survive. The worsening conditions have forced many Wayuu to migrate, either to urban centres or across borders, further intensifying their socio-economic struggles. The Wayuu's cultural identity, rooted in their spiritual connection to the land, is also at risk. A Venezuelan migrant, of the Wayuu Indigenous group, plays with a chicken, in the Belen neighborhood, on the outskirts of Riohacha, Colombia. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Climate Change Destroys an Alaska Village Charles Alexie stands along the coastal erosion that has eaten away at the riverbanks in Newtok, Alaska. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The Alaska town of Newtok has been destroyed by erosion and melting permafrost. All that's left are some dilapidated and largely abandoned grey homes scraped bare of paint by salt darting in on the winds of storms. The town's residents gradually moved their possessions onto boats to relocate to Mertarvik, becoming one of the first Alaska Native villages to complete a large-scale relocation because of climate change.
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