RIGHT ENERGY PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Land and water represent the material and spiritual wealth of the Isnag, a collection of three indigenous peoples in Apayao and Abra

VIGAN, Philippines – Jimmy Basan remembers a childhood spent around a creek in Bulu, a village in Kabugao, the capital of Apayao province.

“My father planted many trees and farmed,” said the 67-year-old Isnag community elder. “The trees and the coconuts still provide us with fruits.”

The bounty didn’t just come from the land. Basan’s family fished in the tributary of the Apayao-Abulog River.

The rich earth and clear waters are more than just sources of food, Basan told Rappler in an interview on January 12. The land also cradles the remains of Basan’s ancestors.

“Naitabonda idiay Bulu, idiay igid ti balaymi met lang da tatang, diay nanang ken tatangna, diay lolana ken dagigiay daddumma pay nga apapongmi.” said Basan. (We buried my father there, near our old house. So were his parents and their parents, and generations of our ancestors.)

Isnag culture prohibits, as much as possible, moving the remains of their ancestors or disturbing their burial grounds, Basan told Rappler.

This community toolkit is meant to be used by Indigenous Peoples’ communities, organizations and individuals who are facing energy projects in their areas and need guidance in dealing with them. It could also be used to inform other actors about indigenous peoples’ rights and perspectives in relation to energy investments in their communities.

The toolkit gathers information and tools from various sources that are available on the web, and which may be useful in protecting indigenous peoples’ rights and promoting access to energy
in their communities. It provides links to other resources, tools and approaches that may be explored by the reader in more detail, depending on their particular context and needs. It also presents a few case studies from the experience of indigenous peoples in engaging with energy project stakeholders and in implementing community- based renewable energy projects that others can learn from.

In particular, the toolkit aims to collect and provide information that may be useful for indigenous communities in:

1. Advocating for the respect of indigenous peoples’ rights in relation to energy projects affecting their lands and resources; and

2. Gaining access to community-based renewable energy projects that benefit them and address their needs.

Since its establishment in 2018, the Right Energy Partnership with Indigenous Peoples (REP) continue to gain support, albeit the challenges posed by the COVID 19 pandemic. This initiative is promoting a human rights-based approach to renewable energy development and access to community-based renewable energy development for the empowerment of indigenous women and communities. This initiative is a collective response of indigenous peoples whose lands and resources are being used for renewable energy development without their participation in decision-making and millions of indigenous peoples in rural areas are hosting these projects but remain without access to energy.

About the event

The side event will highlight work done – achievements, challenges, and lessons learned - in the REP initiative as well as partnerships developed to support a just transition that respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Speakers will come from the representatives of Indigenous Peoples who are part of the REP, representatives from UN agencies (UNDP and IFAD) and donors supporting this initiative.

REGISTRATION LINK: https://whova.com/portal/registration/ecoso_202202

Josefina Tunki is a mother, even though she doesn’t have any biological children. In 2019, she became the first president of the Shuar Arutam People (Pueblo Shuar Arutam, PSHA, in Spanish). The PSHA is an Indigenous organization that unites about 12,000 people living in the Condor mountain range in southeastern Ecuador. From the moment Tunki became president, her protective instincts toward her community and their land strengthened her vital commitment.

Her voice firm and confident, Tunki says she would never order any armed action. However, if the Indigenous Shuar people need to defend themselves against the pressure and violence of mining companies and the Ecuadoran government, Tunki says she would put herself at the forefront to protect the mountains, forests and waterfalls that her people have taken care of for centuries.

Tunki adds she’s not afraid of armed police or soldiers, or swayed by the death threats she’s received from mining companies. Instead, she says she fears that members of her community will lose their home. “What concerns me most is that at the moment we least expect it, there could be evictions or confrontations,” Tunki says.

After studying the impacts of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Northwestern University is calling for more data on how emerging technologies affect human health and livelihoods.

Congo is the world’s top producer of cobalt, which is used in many of the batteries that power electric vehicles. EV sales are expected to soar in the coming years, as countries strive to cut carbon emissions.

In a paper published in the journal One Earth, the group behind the new study explains that exploratory fieldwork in cobalt mining communities in the Lualaba Province was conducted to be able to construct social life cycle assessments (S-LCA).

The team comprised of anthropologists, engineers and public health experts collected qualitative data through in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions with miners and other community members.

For the last four months, the Line 5 pipeline running under the Great Lakes has been carrying 23 million gallons of oil and gas each day, defying orders from Michigan’s Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, that the line be shut down. Protests have ensued. The Bay Mills Indian Community has banned the pipeline’s owner, Enbridge Energy, from its land. And Enbridge and Whitmer have been ordered into mediation by the court. The saga has grabbed national headlines, serving as the latest example of the fight over the future of fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States.

Now, new testimony from scientists has revealed the implications of future plans for Line 5, including the construction of a tunnel over part of the pipeline and the continued flow of oil through the system. According to the analysis, the tunnel project and pipeline could contribute an additional 27 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere annually, and generate $41 billion in climate damages between 2027 and 2070.

When the Elwha River dams fell, it was the culmination of many decades of successful partnerships to support the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in righting historic wrongs.

Cameron Macias bent down to examine a small pile of sawdust-filled scat on the floor of the former Lake Mills on the Elwha River in the northwest corner of Washington state in 2016. It was a sign that beavers were moving into the area after a 100+ year absence. “There’s very small dam-building activity in some of the side tributaries,” says Macias, who was working at the time as a wildlife technician for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, of which she is a member. “It’s kind of funny and ironic because of the dam removal,” Macias says with a laugh.

The dams she’s referring to—the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams—were removed in 2011 and 2014 respectively, and together they are considered the world’s largest dam removal project to date. Many other tribes have looked to the success of the Elwha River dam removals in bringing down fish-blocking dams in their lands as well, including along the Snake River and the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

For the first time since the 1970s, silence descended on the tiny, isolated village of Old Crow in Canada’s Arctic in August.

For generations, the community of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in the Yukon, about 100 kilometres east of the Alaskan border, had suffered the incessant drone of diesel-powered generators to meet its electricity needs.

But the fly-in community, 120 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, was quiet for the first time in decades as the nation brought its solar energy micro-grid online, said Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm at an official COP26 side event Thursday.

“We can now enjoy silence and hear our animals and the crows caw from across our village for the first time in 50 years,” said Tizya-Tramm in a video address to a panel discussing Indigenous renewable micro-grids (REMs) at the UN climate conference in Glasgow.

At least 32 indigenous Magar families affected by the Tanahu Hydropower Project in western Nepal have been protesting against the Project calling for ‘land for land’ and ‘house for house’ compensation; re-survey of land left out during the ‘Detailed Measurement Survey’ of the Project, and free, prior and informed consent in the Project process, among other demands. In this video, Til Bahadur Thapa, chairperson of the affected families' committee, explains why they are opposing the Project.

The 140-MW Tanahu Hydropower Project is being developed by Tanahu Hydropower Limited, which is fully owned by the Nepal Electricity Authority. The Project will construct a 140 meter high concrete dam with a reservoir about 25 kilometers long on the Seti river in Tanahu District. The SinoHydro Corporation is constructing the Project-affiliated facilities. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Investment Bank (EIB), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have provided funding to the Project.

The Brazilian government has announced it wants nearly $4bn of investment in coal mining, despite international calls to phase out the most polluting of fossil fuels.

The Mines and Energy Ministry has published a “programme for the sustainable use of national mineral coal”, which aims to leverage $3.9 billion in investment in coal over the next ten years. It would support the coal sector in Brazil’s southern states until 2050.

The ministry says the money will be used to modernise and provide incentives to Brazil’s coal-fired thermal power plants and could create 600 jobs in mining operations. It added the southern region’ coal reserves could supply 18.6 GW of power over 100 years.