Press Release

Release date (for use in newspapers and electronic media): Thursday, 3 April 2008

Contacts:

Australia: Sam Johnston / Kirsty Galloway McLean, 0407 728 528 (Australia); +61 4 0772 8528 (international); johnston@ias.unu.edu; g_mclean@ias.unu.edu.

North America: Terry Collins, +1-416-538-8712 (o); +1-416-878-8712 (m); terrycollins@rogers.com

UNU officials and several forum speakers are available for advance interviews – contact details follow. The forum will be held in Darwin, Australia at Charles Darwin University’s Mal Nairn Auditorium, Thursday 3 April, 2:30 to 6 pm (reception until 7 pm). Meeting information is available at http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=107&ddlID=643, documentation is available online at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/EGM_CS08.html. For online registration, please see www.cdu.edu.au/whatson/ipf-ipcc.html, or contact events@cdu.edu.au.

Indigenous Knowledge Helping to Combat Climate Change - Forum

Indigenous peoples have contributed the least to world greenhouse gas emissions and have the smallest ecological footprints on Earth. Although they are currently suffering the worst impacts of climate change, their centuries of traditional knowledge and on-the-ground adaptation to worsening conditions have much to teach the rest of the world about how to deal with the impacts of climate change, according to organizers of a Public Forum held on 3 April in Darwin, Australia, hosted by the United Nations University’s Traditional Knowledge Initiative, Charles Darwin University, the North Australia Indigenous Sea and Land Management Alliance and the Northern Territory Government.

Five expert speakers, combining indigenous and traditional knowledge with more traditional western science, have been selected to speak at the Public Forum, to share their experiences in northern Australia with a group of international experts meeting this week in Darwin. Unusually, this UN Forum has been opened to the public, true to the spirit of sharing this information widely amongst the community.

Professor Wendy Brady, Head of the School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems at CDU, and from the Wiradjuri Aboriginal Nation in NSW, is speaking on the adaptive capacity of indigenous peoples. “The cultural knowledge bank of indigenous peoples in relation to climate change has adapted to the ebb and flow of climate change over centuries,” says Professor Brady. This understanding can help communities adapt to worsening drought conditions and desertification, as well as serious biodiversity loss. “Changes to the water table affect salt levels, which have a domino effect on native animals, plants, diet… This then impacts on other areas, such as increases in the number of incoming mosquitoes carrying disease, which can have a dramatic impact on health and viability of a community.”

Professor Bart Currie, Head of the Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division of the Menzies School of Health Research, agrees. “Irrespective of your position on global warming,” he says, “environmental damage and degradation are having a large impact. We have to prepare for upcoming threats, such as the increase we see in mosquito-borne and water-borne diseases like malaria and cholera. These types of pathogens really thrive when sea temperatures start to rise.”

Dr Ngaire Brown, an Aboriginal woman from the south coast of NSW and doctor by trade is speaking at the forum on resilience in the indigenous communities that are being exposed to these environmental changes, and how this may contribute to solving some of the problems we will face as the impacts of climate change reach further.

Also speaking at the forum are Dr Jeremy Russell-Smith and community ranger Dean Yibarbuk, on fire abatement programs and a world-first “carbon trading” deal harnessing ancient traditions of indigenous fire management to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Forum goals

Forum participants in Darwin, Australia will hear first hand the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples in northern Australia, how they are adapting to a warming world, and how their traditional knowledge can be used to benefit society in combating these changes.

Entitled the International Public Forum on Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Tropical Australian Experience, the event is being organized by UNU’s Japan-based Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) in conjunction with Charles Darwin University (CDU) and the North Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA). Outcomes of the forum will feed into a Meeting of Experts being held concurrently in Darwin by UNU-IAS, NAILSMA and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNFII) from 2 April – 4 April. Experts from the meeting will also be attending the Public Forum and participating in an open panel debate with the speakers.

“Indigenous peoples regard themselves as the mercury in the world’s climate change barometer,” says UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder. “They have not benefited, in any significant manner, from climate change-related funding, whether for adaptation and mitigation, nor from emissions trading schemes. The mitigation measures for climate change are very much market-driven and the non-market measures have not been given much attention. We hope this Forum will help address that imbalance.”

Adds UNU-IAS Director AH Zakri: “Most indigenous peoples practice sustainable carbon neutral lives or even carbon negative life ways which has sustained them over thousands of years.

“There are at least 370 million indigenous people throughout the world living relatively neutral or even carbon negative life styles. While not a large number when compared to the world population of 6 billion, it does have a substantial impact in lowering emissions. Compare this to the impact of the United States, with a population of 300 million -- only 4% of the world’s population – but responsible for about 25 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions.”

Speaker biographies, contacts and additional background follows.

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ORGANISER CONTACT INFORMATION

Joe Morrison
Executive Officer, NAILSMA
Telephone: +61 (0)429 695 324; Email: joe.morrison@cdu.edu.au

Sam Johnston
Senior Research Fellow, UNU-IAS
Telephone: +61 (0)407 728 528; Email: johnston@ias.unu.edu

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Jeremy Russell-Smith

Dr Russell-Smith is a consultant ecologist who leads the fire research programs of the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre based at Charles Darwin University, and of Bushfires NT (the Northern territory Government’s rural fire management agency). Over the past ten years research programs undertaken through both these institutions have focused particularly on developing ecologically and economically sustainable solutions for people living in remote situations across northern Australia.

Telephone: +61 (0)8 8922 0830; Mobile: +61 (0)408 410 031; Email:

Dean Yibarbuk

Mr Dean Yibarbuk is a fire ecologist. He has presented papers internationally and nationally related to Aboriginal and Natural Resource Management. His interests lie in Aboriginal and Natural Resource Management. Dean is a strong cultural leader and would like to see more initiatives involving Aboriginal people in Natural Resource Management projects.
Telephone: +61 (0)8 8979 0772

Wendy Brady

Professor Wendy Brady is from the Wiradjuri Aboriginal nation in NSW. She has extensive research experience in Indigenous Australian higher education, research ethics, and Indigenous knowledge. She is currently employed as the Head of School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Dr. Brady is working on the issues of Indigenous Australian cultural economies and how to deliver related programs of education and training to remote communities in Australia and internationally.

Telephone: +61 (0)8 8946 6208; Email: wendy.brady@cdu.edu.au

Bart Currie

Dr Bart Currie is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Royal Darwin Hospital and Professor in Medicine at the Northern Territory Clinical School, Flinders University. He is also Head of the Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division of the Menzies School of Health Research at Charles Darwin University. Areas of interest include clinical and epidemiological aspects of tropical and emerging infections, development of treatment guidelines and clinical toxicology.

[PLEASE CONTACT ONLY ON THE DAY OF THE FORUM] Telephone: +61 (0)8 8922 8056; Email: bart@menzies.edu.au

Ngiare Brown

Dr Ngaire Brown is an Aboriginal woman from the south coast of NSW. A doctor by trade, she has a background in Aboriginal health policy, practice and medical education. She is currently working with Menzies School of Health Research and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Her Doctoral studies were in human rights and Indigenous child health.

Telephone: +61 (0)8 8922 7825; Email:

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Please refer to the related press release for the concurrent UNU Expert Meeting being held in Darwin from 2 April – 4 April, titled “Indigenous Peoples to Describe Climate Change Impacts” for further information about the Expert Meeting and related international issues including biofuel production, renewable energy expansion, and other mitigation measures uprooting indigenous peoples in many regions.

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UNU Institute of Advanced Studies

The Institute of Advanced Studies is part of the United Nations University’s global network of research and training centres. IAS undertakes research and postgraduate education on leading sustainable development issues, convening expertise from disciplines such as economics, law, biology, political science, physics and chemistry to better understand and contribute creative solutions to pressing global concerns. UNU-IAS works to identify and address strategic issues of concern for all humankind, for governments and decision makers and, particularly, for developing countries.

United Nations University

Established by the U.N. General Assembly, UNU is an international community of scholars engaged in research, advanced training and the dissemination of knowledge related to pressing global problems. Activities focus mainly on peace and conflict resolution, sustainable development and the use of science and technology to advance human welfare. The University operates a worldwide network of research and post-graduate training centres, with headquarters in Tokyo.