E/2008/43
E/C.19/2008/13
high mountain agriculture; etc.). The Forum further recommends that discussions
and negotiations on strengthening the links between climate change, biodiversity
and cultural diversity under the Convention on Biological Diversity or the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ensure the effective
participation of indigenous peoples.
20. The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations University
Institute of Advanced Studies, university research centres and relevant United
Nations agencies conduct further studies on the impacts of climate change and
climate change responses on indigenous peoples who are living in highly fragile
ecosystems, such as low-lying coastal areas and small island States; semi-arid and
arid lands and dry and sub-humid lands (grasslands); tropical and subtropical
forests; and high mountain areas.
21. The Permanent Forum recommends that States that have not already done so
assign environment a more important profile in strategic planning initiatives at the
national level and, in particular, in e-government initiatives so that the use of
information and communications technologies (ICT) for the environment is
integrated into planning processes from the beginning, along with other national
priorities and initiatives (disposal of ICT equipment).
22. The Forum decides to appoint Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Lars Anders-Baer,
members of the Permanent Forum, as special rapporteurs to prepare a report on
various models and best practices of mitigation and adaptation measures undertaken
by indigenous peoples from various parts of the world. The Forum requests that
these special rapporteurs, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, also prepare a
draft declaration of action on climate change and indigenous peoples, which can
include a road map for indigenous peoples towards the 2009 Copenhagen
Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change and beyond. These will be presented at the eighth session of the Forum.
23. The Permanent Forum calls for urgent, serious and unprecedented action by
the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly, along with all United
Nations bodies and agencies, recognizing that climate change is an urgent and
immediate threat to human rights, health, sustainable development, food
sovereignty, and peace and security, and calls upon all countries to implement the
highest, most rigorous and most stringent levels of greenhouse gas reduction.
24. The Permanent Forum urges States responsible for major sources of pollution
and emissions of greenhouse gases to be accountable by enforcing and upholding
stricter global pollution regulations that will apply to polluting parties.
25. The Permanent Forum recommends that States develop mechanisms through
which they can monitor and report on the impacts of climate change on indigenous
peoples, mindful of their socio-economic limitations as well as spiritual and cultural
attachment to lands and waters.
26. The Permanent Forum calls on States to implement the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and principles of sustainability and
to call on transnational corporations to respect those standards. This applies
particularly to highly industrialized States and the transnational corporations that
engage in development activities in those States.
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