05-05-2025
Climate front lines: Indigenous people battle brunt of global warming
Around the world, indigenous communities have become something of a human early warning system for climate change.
Living in close relationship with their natural surroundings - whether in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the South Pacific - they are often the first to experience the devastating consequences of a warming planet.
And yet, these same communities hold critical knowledge that could help combat it.
Stewards of nature's balance
Despite making up just 5% of the global population, indigenous peoples manage nearly 80% of Earth's remaining biodiversity.
According to a study by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), areas under secure indigenous land rights suffer significantly less deforestation than others.
"Indigenous peoples are key players in the climate agenda," says Germán Freire of the World Bank. "[They are] the guarantors of large tracts of forest and ecosystems critical to the planet's well-being."
But that guardianship is under threat from all sides: deforestation, environmental degradation, pollution, rising sea levels and extreme weather.
The challenges are mounting - and so are the stories of resilience.
Rising sea levels force displacement
Rising sea levels are forcing indigenous communities from their ancestral homes. In Panama, around 1,350 members of the Guna ethnic group were relocated from the small island of Gardí Sugdub (Crab Island) to a mainland settlement last year.
The island, just 2 kilometres off Panama's Atlantic coast, is expected to be fully submerged by 2050. The Guna relocation is considered one of Latin America's first climate-induced resettlements.
In the South Pacific, entire nations face similar threats. Low-lying island states like Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji are at risk of becoming uninhabitable.
Tuvalu, north-east of Australia, is predicted to be largely underwater within decades. In response, Australia announced it would grant permanent residency to affected citizens.
The Solomon Islands offer another stark example.
The indigenous Walande community, once based on a small offshore island, was forced to relocate to the mainland after severe spring tides in 2009. But the threat persists.
According to Human Rights Watch, seawater is now breaching protective dykes at the new site, while traditional food sources are disappearing as gardens are washed away and fish stocks dwindle.
"Walande's story is a warning that communities cannot face the climate crisis alone," said Erica Bower, climate displacement expert at HRW. "Governments have a duty to support those affected."
Drought threatens herders in East Africa
On the other end of the climate spectrum, East African pastoralist groups such as the Maasai, Turkana, Samburu and Borana are being driven from traditional grazing lands due to prolonged drought and erratic rainfall.
More than 10 million livestock perished in 2021 and 2022, according to the World Bank. The impact on people has been just as severe - around 2.1 million individuals in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia became climate refugees in 2022, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.
Many pastoralist families have been pushed to give up their nomadic way of life and move to urban areas in search of stability.
Efforts are now under way to mitigate this forced migration: restoring degraded lands with sustainable grazing techniques, building rainwater catchments, planting drought-resistant crops, and offering pastoralists new income opportunities such as dairy processing.
Traditional ways of life under threat
Rising temperatures and prolonged droughts in the Kalahari Desert - spanning South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana - are putting immense pressure on the delicate ecosystems that the indigenous San people have relied on for generations.
As primarily hunter-gatherers, the San depend on a rich diversity of plants and animals now increasingly at risk, warns the UN's Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The erosion of biodiversity is also taking a toll on cultural traditions.
According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the San's spiritual and healing practices are being disrupted.
One example is the Hoodia plant, long used by the San for medicinal purposes. It now faces serious threats - not only from climate change but also from overharvesting driven by global pharmaceutical demand.
Pathways forward: Sustainable agriculture, forest stewardship
In Namibia, the government has designated communal conservancies such as the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in the country's north-east to help protect the traditional lands and livelihoods of the San people.
These initiatives aim to preserve cultural and economic practices through reforestation, sustainable hunting and farming, and ecological education programs tailored to local communities.
Across the globe, land rights remain a cornerstone of effective climate action.
On the island of Borneo, the indigenous Dayak Tomun community from Kinipan has long resisted the encroachment of palm oil plantations that threaten the rainforests they call home.
These forests, located in Indonesia's Kalimantan region, are not only vital carbon sinks but also among the last habitats for critically endangered species like orangutans and other rare wildlife.
Rainforests under threat: The fight for indigenous land rights
Rainforests are vital to the health of our planet - absorbing vast amounts of greenhouse gases and acting as essential carbon sinks.
Yet in Borneo, these critical ecosystems are being rapidly destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations driven by global demand.
For years, the Dayak Tomun people have fought to secure legal recognition of their ancestral forest lands. Despite submitting extensive documentation and expert assessments multiple times, their efforts have so far been in vain.
In reality, Indonesia's indigenous communities are only recognised after enormous struggle, and even then only rarely - despite having lived here long before the state of Indonesia existed, the Rainforest Rescue organization states.
Meanwhile, corporations can easily obtain concessions for logging, plantations, or mining - often without consulting the indigenous communities whose lives and cultures are most affected.
