11/06/2017

INVITATION TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION: Climate Summit in Bonn

“Indigenous Peoples – First Victims of Climate Change“

STP action in Hamburg.

On occasion of the beginning of the UN Climate Summit in Bonn next Monday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and Ashaninka representative Benki Piyako from Brazil will be demonstrating for a more sustainable climate policy that respects indigenous peoples as equal negotiating partners. During the vigil, the human rights activists will be showing the conference participants a brightly colored banner reading “Indigenous Peoples: First Victims of Climate Change”, emphasizing that the industrial nations are too hesitant with measures against global warming – and, thus, are putting the indigenous peoples as well as the earth’s cultural and ecological diversity at severe risk.

We would like to invite you and your colleagues from the photo editing departments to our vigil

“Indigenous Peoples - First Victims of Climate Change”

on Monday, November 6, 2017,

from 8:00 am to 10:00 am

Heussallee 9-13 in Bonn

“The world’s approximately 5,000 indigenous peoples – about 370 million people – are already suffering the most from the consequences of climate change. It must be a matter of course to recognize their needs and their knowledge, and not to just let them have their say on the sidelines of the conference,” the STP demands. In order to live their traditional lives, indigenous communities are much more dependent on an intact ecosystem than developed nations.

In the Brazilian state of Acre, Benki Piyako and his Ashaninka community built up the training center “Yorenka Ãtame”, which focuses on keeping the rainforest intact. The project aims to teach indigenous as well as non-indigenous young people how to make careful and respectful use of natural resources, even with modern means. They are trained in forestry, turtle keeping, beekeeping, and fish farming – and they also learn how to use computers and the Internet. Accompanied by the STP’s Brazil expert, Eliane Fernandes Ferreira, Benki Piyako will be staying in Bonn until November 12, 2017, in order to talk about his environmental project at several events. He will also address the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation to ask for support for the Ashaninka.