Tribesmen to attend global climate change conference

Amazonian tribesmen who have defended the land and rainforests that feed their people and nurture their culture in battles and in courtrooms will join thousands of delegates seeking to find a global solution to climate change later this year.

Three Ashaninka representatives are to make the journey from the rainforest into the Danish winter to ensure the voice from the front line of deforestation is represented at the upcoming Copenhagen climate change negotiations.

When governments, global leaders, NGOs leave the negotiation table they hope to have agreed a new treaty to safeguard the planet and its people from rising temperatures.

The treaty will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and which runs out in 2012.

Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which the USA famously refused to sign, countries around the world committed to reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide.

These measures were established in reaction to burgeoning scientific evidence for climate change being man made, and also within the ability of humankind to avoid.

Research from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change established that in order to prevent the worst excesses of rising temperatures the people of the world had to cut their CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

The impacts of climate change are already being felt – in the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events, changing migration patterns of animals and water scarcity.

However, in order to avoid the situation worsening and passing an irreversible tipping point, the IPCC has said that temperatures must not rise by more than two degrees compared to 1990 levels.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases cause the global temperature to rise by preventing heat from escaping earth's atmosphere.

The gas is caused by the burning of fossil fuels as well as the burning and decomposition of plant materials.

Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide during their lifetime, helping combat climate change by locking the gas away.

Rainforests, where the Ashaninka make their home in habitations of up to 50 people, are known as "carbon sinks" because they trap massive amounts of carbon dioxide.

However, the stored CO2 in trees is released when they are burned to clear land for crops, cattle or cocaine.

Illegal logging does not contribute directly to CO2 emissions but does reduce the forest's ability to absorb CO2.

Recent research also shows that drought affects the forests' ability to absorb the gas, and with drought linked to rising temperatures, there is a risk that a vicious circle could be created.

Destruction of the rainforest accounts the emission of six-billion tonnes a year, the equivalent of the annual emissions of the USA.

The Ashaninka have dealt with all of these threats. According to the United Nations High Commission on refugees, in the early 20th century, they have been colonized by rubber tappers, their lands were taken to produce sugar and palm oil as well as for cattle and later by gold prospectors and oil companies. Illegal loggers have plundered their land, and they have had to defend it from militant groups that have wanted to use it to grow cocaine to fund their activities.

Even tribespeople themselves have used destructive slash and burn techniques to clear land for crops.

However, the tribe has recently turned to Cool Earth to help protect the rainforest – which now being regarded as a global resource for its ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

The sponsorship programme offered by Cool Earth, the organisation now sending the tribal representatives to Copenhagen, was accepted by the Ashaninkas a year ago, who at the same time rejected an offer to allow logging on 50,000 acres of their land.

When the Ashaninka representatives meet delegates at the climate conference next year it will be as stewards of a precious resource, the trees of the Amazonian rainforest in Peru.

They are the biggest ethnic group in the region and have fought for their land not only against militant groups but also large international corporations and state authorities.

Recently they have achieved some success with the establishment of a new protected area at the Otishi National Park and the creation of two indigenous communal reserves.

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