Delegates from Indigenous communities in 24 countries of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe attended COP-6, in the hopes of seeing an ad-hoc "Working Group on Indigenous People's Rights and Climate Change" included in the permanent agenda of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Sam Ferrer, a member of the Indigenous Peoples Delegation, from the Philippines, stated "We have been displaced in the international negotiations process on climate change, which has already impacted our lands and therefore, our identities in the most negative way."
"We stand as first witnesses to the destruction caused by global warming to the earth and as the first victims of the proposed implementation of the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism). We are part of the forest; it is part of us. Our right to participation is mandatory. We are being sinked."
The Indigenous Peoples Delegation is opposed to the inclusion of carbon sinks in the Clean Development Mechanism, because they are afraid that this will encourage their respective national governments to view the forests merely as commodities in the emissions trading market.
The Indigenous Peoples Delegation is opposed to the inclusion of carbon sinks in the Clean Development Mechanism, because they are afraid that this will encourage their respective national governments to view the forests merely as commodities in the emissions trading market.