Reference: Beverly Longid, KATTIBU National Convenor

Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan sa Pilipinas joins various groups protesting at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Indigenous Peoples (IP) are the first to be affected by the collaboration of governments and business interests in our ancestral lands, which are destructive to us and the environment.

There is no other way to save our planet but an immediate system change. Our ancestors have sustainably cultivated our lands for hundreds of years without destroying our rivers, oceans, mountains, and forests. Capitalism, the elites increasing greed for profit through exploiting human and natural resources, endangered our lives and the environment.

The “Great Reset” call of states and businesses in the COP is sugarcoating their greed, exploitation, and accountability. We will still be heading to extinction faster than we should. Unless governments heed the people’s call to get rid of destructive projects, maintain the natural course of lands and rivers, and develop community-based biodiversity protection systems, we have a chance to save our planet and humankind from extinction.

The peoples of the world must change the profit-oriented system to a more humane society where marginalized peoples like us have an equal voice in decision-making and viable, sustainable indigenous practices and knowledge are recognized and enhanced. State leaders should heed the call of Indigenous Peoples and all oppressed sectors, the rightsholders which are the first to be affected by environmental destruction through hunger, dislocation, and disease.

Massive land conversions caused the aftermath of the recent Pablo typhoon in the Philippines. As Marcos Jr. offered, planting trees is an uneducated guess of the president for a solution. It was mainly due to the government’s policy for land use conversions to accommodate businesses that caused the landslides and flash floods. The key is way more than just planting trees but policy change.

Katribu remains one with the environmental defenders, human rights activists, progressive scientists, workers, and peasants in this struggle for a genuine change for climate justice. ###