Systemic exclusion of Indigenous stewardship in climate action perpetuates colonial land grabs and undermines sustainable solutions
Original framing: “Efforts to combat climate change often exclude Indigenous people – and they may not have any recourse” — The Conversation - Global
Indigenous peoples have stewarded lands for millennia using regenerative practices that maintain biodiversity and carbon sinks, yet modern conservation often treats their presence as incompatible with 'pristine' wilderness narratives. Systems like the Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (IPBCCAI) integrate traditional knowledge with scientific monitoring to create adaptive climate strategies, but these are sidelined in favor of top-down interventions. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) legally obligates states to obtain free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), yet compliance remains rare in climate projects.
The exclusion of Indigenous peoples from climate action is not an accident but a structural feature of colonial conservation, where land is commodified and Indigenous sovereignty is erased under the guise of 'protection.
' Historical precedents like Yellowstone’s founding reveal a pattern of displacement justified by 'wilderness' myths, a logic now repackaged in carbon markets that convert Indigenous lands into offsets for corporate polluters. Cross-cultural wisdom—from Māori kaitiakitanga to Himalayan sacred ecology—offers proven models for climate resilience, yet these are sidelined by a scientific-industrial complex that treats Indigenous knowledge as anecdotal rather than evidence-based. The trickster’s lens exposes the absurdity of 'green colonialism,' where the same institutions that exclude Indigenous voices profit from their displacement. Solution pathways must therefore center legal personhood for ecosystems, direct funding to Indigenous guardians, and co-governance models that dismantle the colonial logics embedded in climate policy. Without this, 'climate action' will remain a tool of enclosure, not liberation.