Arctic indigenous peoples debate climate change

Nov 16, 2009, 15:03 GMT

Stockholm - A delay in signing a legally-binding treaty on climate change at a UN climate conference in December could offer 'an opportunity' to push for a better treaty, a leading Inuit activist said Monday.

Recent statements from several of the parties involved in the talks suggest that a legally-binding treaty at the UN conference December 7-18 will be delayed until next year, and delegates will seek a political agreement instead.

Canadian-born Sheila Watt-Cloutier said this could be an opportunity to work for a 'stronger accord,' she told the German Press Agency dpa in Stockholm where she was attending a human rights conference.

She herself had noted that there were fears in recent months that the deal would not be comprehensive or strong enough.

After leading the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents 155,000 Inuit who live in Canada, the United States, Greenland and Russia, she is now an independent.

In addition to speaking at a two-day human rights conference she also took part in a seminar on how indigenous peoples in the Arctic region are impacted by climate change.

The warming of the Arctic region is threating the traditional way of life of indigenous peoples such the Inuit and the reindeer-herding Sami of the Scandinavian region.

The Sami number some 80,000 including a few thousand who live in Russia, though many Sami are no longer reindeer-herders.

The Inuit 'thrive on ice and snow, which represents mobility and transportation,' Cloutier-Watt said, comparing the melting ice and lack of snow to crumbling urban highways.

The changes have also led to new species and insects in the Arctic region 'some which we don't even have names for.'

Swedish-born Lilian Mikelsson who hails from a reindeer-herding and forest Sami community noted that there were '100 words in Sami to describe different states of snow.'

Ellen Inga Turi from northern Norway has continued to raise reindeers and is a researcher at the Sami University College where she is studying reindeer husbandry and climate change.

The reindeer herders have managed to adapt to climate change in the past but that is under threat with the encroachment on their traditional grazing land, she said, citing the impact of infrastructure, tourism and the influx of more people.