"Indigenous Visions for Climate Justice" seeks to make visible the contributions of indigenous peoples in the face of climate change.

Indigenous peoples are one of the groups most vulnerable to climate change, yet their knowledge is not fully taken into account when States develop climate adaptation measures.

Therefore, the Indigenous Visions for Climate Justice project seeks to understand and make visible the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on climate policies, in particular the ongoing climate adaptation and mitigation processes in Chile and Peru. It also seeks to understand how these perspectives are being incorporated into official narratives, policies and practices, as well as the nature of Indigenous Peoples' participation in the process.

Launching of the Visiones Indígenas project

The launching workshop for this project was held on September 5 in Lima and was led by principal investigators Maritza Paredes (PUCP), Paulina Aldunce (University of Chile) and principal investigator Daniel Morchain (NGO The Nature Conservancy). Many issues were discussed at this meeting, including the coordination of ethnographies to be carried out in depth in some indigenous communities in Chile and Peru.

In the Peruvian case, this fieldwork will be carried out in the regions of San Martin and Arequipa. Both regions suffer serious problems that threaten the destruction of their forests or ecosystems, as a consequence of extractive activities such as logging, cash crops or mining activities respectively, but have taken different paths from the subnational environmental policy.

In the medium term, participatory workshops will be held in both countries. These will seek a space for dialogue between the different State entities and the Platform of Indigenous Peoples to address Climate Change, with the aim of making the visions of Indigenous Peoples visible and thus achieve a greater echo of the voices of these communities under the notion of climate justice. Finally, in the long term, a peer-to-peer learning meeting will be held in Lima between indigenous representatives from Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador to exchange experiences on these issues that unite them.

At the end of the project, it is expected to have achieved a better understanding of how to turn ideas on climate justice into concrete actions and/or policies, creating institutional arrangements at the subnational and/or national level. In addition, it is expected to have raised awareness of climate justice among national governmental, private and IPG decision-makers, and to have found ways to channel them into concrete actions. Finally, it is expected to open up opportunities for women and youth communities to support the conceptualization and design of climate adaptation efforts through creative and artistic channels.

Prepared by: Research and Advocacy Area, and Dr. Anke Kaulard (PUCP researcher).