Nery Matías Ramos is a young Mayan of the Mam ethnic group, in the community of Buena Vista, in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala. Since he was a child, he has been interested in forests and now he sees very clearly the problem that climate change brings to his population.
"Climate change has taken a huge toll on communities. Mainly, we have become aware of this problem because of the issue of agricultural production. Before, you planted some crops and it gave you a bigger harvest; the rains came at the right time, the light conditions were more suitable, the soil did not change much, but now the drought has affected agriculture a lot," says Nery, who is 24 years old and is about to finish his agronomy degree in the department of Huehuetenango, two hours from Buena Vista.
Nery is one of thousands of young indigenous people who want to add their voice and actions to efforts to curb the impact of climate change in Latin America. However, it's not easy.
Indigenous peoples in Latin America continue to suffer from inequalities and conditions of poverty that hinder their full inclusion for greater development in the Latin American region. Centuries of neglect and exclusion mean, according to the World Bank's report entitled "Indigenous Latin America in the 43st Century", that at least 42% of the <> million people belonging to indigenous communities live in poverty, a figure that is more than double the proportion of non-indigenous people living in the same situation.
Added to inequality and poverty is the impact of climate change affecting the territories inhabited by indigenous communities, home to much of the world's biodiversity. This is despite the fact that these are the populations that contribute the least to global warming.
New voices in the face of the climate challenge
Although the challenge is great, the new generations of indigenous peoples, young people like Nery, are beginning to act with the support of local organizations and universities in the region.
At the age of 17, Nery was introduced to the Utz-Che' Association, a network of more than 40 local communities and farmers tasked with protecting Guatemala's lands and forests and on constant alert for national policies on the recognition of collective rights and climate change, which in 2019 was responsible for the acute food insecurity of 34 million people in 25 countries around the world.
Thus, Nery began to collaborate with the Utz-Che' Association, which must mediate with external agents so that indigenous forests, lands and communities are respected. They also generate strategic alliances, important for the development of the population without violating cultural identity.
For Germán Freire, Senior Social Development Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, indigenous communities have a fundamental role to play in the work to curb global warming.
"Indigenous peoples are key actors in the climate agenda, because, although they are only 5% of the population, they manage around 80% of the world's biodiversity and are guarantors of large extensions of forest and ecosystems critical to the well-being of the planet," he explains and gives the example of the Amazon rainforest. "Most of the Amazon has been subjected to indigenous agroforestry management practices at some point in its history, and those interventions are still an essential part of the composition and resilience of the tropical forest."
Indigenous girl in GuatemalaWorld Bank
For more than a decade, the World Bank has been collaborating with Indigenous Peoples' organizations to better understand and leverage traditional knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions. In addition, through direct grants to indigenous organizations and their inclusion in national programs, the Bank is also working to promote the recognition and strengthening of the significant contributions of Indigenous Peoples as stewards of the region's forests and biodiversity.
In addition to the Utz-Che' Association, they have also established a strategic alliance for the training of new generations of indigenous leaders with the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), where Dali Ángel, a young Zapotec woman from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, is the coordinator of the Women and Youth program.
For Dali, indigenous youth must be seated at the table of discussions on adaptation and mitigation to the effects of climate change, because what is at stake is their future: "We cannot create public policies and mitigation measures without consulting them. That is where the new generations come in to play a fundamental role, because they will be the transmitters of traditional knowledge and knowledge. It is the new generations who can dialogue within the globalized world."
A woman farmer in Chiapas, Mexico.WORLD BANK
In response to these demands, the World Bank created the "Indigenous Youth Voices for Climate Change Action" program that will train 90 indigenous youth in the region. The initiative, led by the Indigenous Fund for Latin America (FILAC) in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Intercultural Indigenous University, the Indigenous Youth Network, the Abya Yala Indigenous Forum (FIAY) and the Carlos III University of Madrid, seeks to strengthen the capacity of indigenous youth across the region to participate more effectively in the climate agenda of their countries and communities.
The innovation of this program is that it brings Western scientific knowledge and the traditional ecological knowledge of communities together. For indigenous participation to be effective, they must understand both sides of the discussion. Dalí is aware of the importance of building bridges of dialogue between the two types of knowledge. "Neither we nor they have all the answers, how do we combine both knowledge for the good of our communities?"
That is the great challenge that young indigenous people like Dalí and Nery are taking on. They are the hope of their communities to influence the global climate agenda without giving up their traditional ecological knowledge. They are the first line of defense to ensure compliance with environmental commitments and contribute to eliminating poverty on a viable planet.