Bolivian Indigenous People Sound the Alarm on Climate Change

Je suis en ce moment en Bolivie a Cochabamba a la Conférence Mondiale des Peuples sur le Changement Climatique et les Droits de la Terre Mère. Je viens de publier un article sur le site de la conference, voici le lien http://envivo.cmpcc.org.bo/Bolivian-Indigenous-People-Sound?lang=fr
My name is Melody Freyburger and I am a French teacher and sociology student working on social movements in Latin America. I heard about the conference when I was in Brasil last week, and decided to take a bus from Rio de Janeiro. After 4 days of travel I eventually arrived in Cochabamba and saw the last three days of the conference. When I arrived I was amazed by the diversity of cultures represented at the event. This conference, organised by the Bolivian government, is really a people’s event : free entrance, free water and even free lunches! (unlike some of the world social forums, where local people could not afford to buy food). Here, it is local people who are selling food. Viewed from above, the conference looks like a patchwork of colours and cultures. Bolivian mamitas and papitas are in traditional dress everywhere, chewing coca leaves, and chatting with Europeans and North Americans. All ages are present, from the old to the young, and even very young people like Ricardo, a twelve-year-old Cochabambino working hard to collect as much information as possible for his school. From formal group panels to ongoing working groups to self-organised events, anyone can participate and take the floor (as long as you feel confortable enough to talk in front of so many people – but that is another matter.)

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in the world, has organised the World’s People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Why? Because more than 50% of the Bolivian population is indigenous. As we know indigenous people live very close to nature; as Pedro, an indigenous Kallawaya man from La Paz says, “We live through nature.” They are more likely to be affected by climate change than people from the western countries who live in cities and comfortable houses. They live by subsistence agriculture, which means that when the seasons change and they can’t cultivate their food, they cannot eat. Pedro adds, “Nowadays the seasons are disturbed … sometimes there is a lot of water that destroys everything, and sometimes there is no water at all.” Edmundo, also Kallawaya, adds, “and if there is no water, we die.”

Inhabitants of cities, of course, have the option of working a little more to pay for water, if the price increases; indigenous people do not have such options. When their houses are destroyed by heavy rains, they don’t have insurance policies to pay for damages or build a new house. The only option for them is to leave their beloved pachamama (mother nature) and find another place to live. If they have to cross borders, other issues arise. Countries protect themselves from unwanted climate refugees through strict immigration policies (as explained by No Borders Network in their workshop). This happens not only in the USA and Europe, but also in countries such as Bangladesh, among those at greatest risk of climate change. There, according to No Borders, inhabitants are already “protected” by a real wall which prevent them from escaping, if by any chance there were thinking of seeking help abroad.

This is why indigenous Bolivians are sounding a wake-up call to western countries. But the question remains the same: how can we actually develop a world policy on climate, when the main polluters are not taking part into the event? As a Peruvian indigenous woman from the group Conversaciones con la Madre Tierra said, “We should not be sad about what is happening because everything is in our hands”. The purpose of this event was also to raise awareness, and share information. Once we have access to the information, there are actions that each one of us can do in our everyday lives, habits we can start changing. For example, what can we start doing now that we know that the meat industry is one the major source of pollution?