WORLD PEOPLES鈥?CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH INDEGENOUS PEOPLES鈥?DECLARATION

Mother Earth can live without us except we can鈥檛 live without her.

We the Indigenous Peoples nations and organizations from all through the world gathered at the World Peoples鈥?Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth from April 19th to 22nd 2010 in Tiquipaya Cochabamba Bolivia behind extensive discussions express the following:

We Indigenous Peoples are sons and daughters of Mother Earth or 鈥淧achamama鈥?in Quechua. Mother Earth is a living being in the universe that concentrates power and life while giving shelter and life to all without asking anything in return she is the past present and future; this is our relationship with Mother Earth. We have lived in coexistence with her for thousands of years with our wisdom and cosmic spirituality linked to nature. However the economic models promoted and forced by industrialized countries that promote exploitation and wealth accumulation have radically transformed our relationship with Mother Earth. We must assert that weather change is one of the consequences of this irrational logic of life that we must change.

The aggression towards Mother Earth and the repeated assaults and violations against our soils air forests rivers lakes biodiversity and the cosmos are assaults against us. Before we used to beg for permission for everything. Now coming from developed countries it is presumed that Mother Earth must ask us for permission. Our territories are not respected particularly those of peoples in willing isolation or initial contact and we sustain the most terrible aggression since colonization only to facilitate the entry of markets and extractive industries.

We recognize that Indigenous Peoples and the rest of the world live in a general age of crises: environmental energy food financial ethical between others like a effect of policies and attitudes from racist and exclusionary states. We want to convey that at the Copenhagen Climate Conference the peoples of the world demanded fair treatment but were repressed. Meanwhile the states responsible for the climate crisis were capable to weaken even more any possible outcome of negotiations and evade signing onto any binding agreement. They limited themselves to simply supporting the Copenhagen Accord an accord that proposes unacceptable and insufficient goals as far as climate change action and financing to the most affected countries and peoples.

We affirm that international negotiation spaces have systematically excluded the participation of Indigenous Peoples. As a result we as Indigenous Peoples are making ourselves visible in these spaces since as Mother Earth has been hurt and plundered with negative activities taking place on our lands territories and natural resources we have also been hurt. This is why as Indigenous Peoples we will not keep silent but instead we propose to mobilize all our peoples to reach at COP16 in Mexico and other spaces well prepared and united to protect our proposals particularly the 鈥渓iving well鈥?and plurinational state proposals.

We Indigenous Peoples do not want to live 鈥渂etter鈥?but instead we trust that everyone must live well. This is a proposal to achieve balance and start to construct a new society. The search for common objectives as history shows us will only be completed with the union of Indigenous Peoples of the World. The ancestral and indigenous roots shared by the entire world must be one of the bonds that unite us to achieve one unique objective.

Therefore we propose require and demand:

The recovery revalidation and strengthening of our civilizations identities cultures and cosmovisions based on ancient and ancestral Indigenous scholarship and wisdom for the construction of alternative ways of life to the current 鈥渄evelopment model鈥?as a way to confront climate change.

To rescue and strengthen the Indigenous proposal of 鈥渓iving well鈥?while also recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with whom we have an indivisible and interdependent relationship based on principles and mechanisms that assure the regard harmony and balance between people and nature and supporting a association based on social and environmental justice which sees life as its purpose. All this must be done to confront the plundering capitalist model and guarantee theprotection of life as a whole through the search for inclusive global agreements.

We inquire States to recognize respect and guarantee the request of international standards of human rights and Indigenous Peoples鈥?rights (i.e. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ILO Convention 169) in the framework of negotiations policies and measures to confront climate change.

We require States to legally recognize the preexistence of our right to the lands territories and natural resources that we have traditionally held as Indigenous Peoples and Nations as well as restitution and restoration of natural goods waterforests and jungles lakes oceans sacred places lands and territories that have been dispossessed and seized. This is needed to strengthen and make possible our traditional way of living while contributing effectively to climate change solutions.Inasmuch we call for the consolidation of indigenous territories in exercise of our self-determination and autonomy in conformity with systems of rules and regulations. At the same time we demand that states respect the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation or in initial contact as an efficient way to preserve their honesty and combat the adverse effects of climate change towards thosepeoples.

We call on States not to promote commercial monoculture practices nor to introduce or promote genetically-modified and exotic crops because according to our people鈥檚 wisdom these species aggravate the degradation of jungles forests and soils contributing to the increase in global warming. Likewise megaprojects under the search for alternative energy sources that influence Indigenous Peoples鈥?lands territories and natural habitats should not be implemented including nuclearbio-engineering hydroelectric wind-power and others.

We demand changes to forestry and environmental laws as well as the application of pertinent international instruments to effectively protect forests and jungles as well as their biological and cultural diversity guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples鈥?rights including their participation and their Free Prior and Informed Consent.

We propose that in the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures states establish a policy that Protected Natural Areas must be managed administered and controlled directly by Indigenous Peoples taking into report the demonstrated traditional experience and knowledge towards the sustainable management of the biodiversity in our forests and jungles.

We demand a review or if the case warrants a moratorium to every polluting activity that affects Mother Earth and the withdrawal of multinational corporations and megaprojects from Indigenous territories.

We urge that states recognize water as a radical human right avoiding its privatization and commodification.

We demand the application of consultations participation and the Free Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples and affected populations in the design and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures and any other intervening actions on Indigenous territories.

States must promote mechanisms to guarantee that funding for climate change action arrives directly and effectively to Indigenous Peoples as part of the compensation for the historical and ecological debt owed. This funding must support and strengthen our own visions and cosmovisions towards 鈥渓iving well鈥?

We call for the recovery revalidation and strengthening of Indigenous Peoples鈥?technologies and knowledge and for their incorporation into the research design and implementation of climate change policies. This should compliment Western knowledge and technology ensuring that technology transfer processes do not weaken indigenous knowledge and technologies.

We propose the recovery development and diffusion of indigenous knowledge and technology through the implementation of educational policies and programs including the modification and incorporation of such knowledge and ancestral wisdom in curricula and teaching methods.

We urge States and international bodies that are making decisions about climate change especially the UNFCCC to establish formal structures and mechanisms that include the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples. They must also include local communities and vulnerable groups including women without discrimination as a key element to obtain a fair and equitable result from climate change negotiations.

We join in the demand to create a Climate Justice Tribunal that would be able to pass judgement and establish penalties for non-compliance of agreements and other environmental crimes by developed countries which are principally responsible for climate change. This institution must consider the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and their principles of justice.

We propose the organization and coordination of Indigenous Peoples worldwide through our local national regional and international governments organizations and other mechanisms of legitimate representation in order to participate in all climate change related processes. With that in mind we call for an organizational space to be created that will contribute to the global search for effective solutions toclimate change with the special participation of Elders.

We propose to fight in all spaces available to defend life and Mother Earth particularly in COP16 and so we propose a 2nd Peoples鈥?Conference to strengthen the process of reflection and action.

The ratification of the global campaign to organize the World March in defense of Mother Earth and her peoples against the commodification of life pollution and the criminalization of Indigenous and social movements.

Created in unity in Tiquipaya Cochabamba Bolivia the 21st day of April 2010.