Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change Activism in Southeast Asia

• In Event: Indigenous Politics Virtual Mini-Conference: Native Lands, Native Waters: The Politics of Climate Change and Native Nations

Abstract

In numerous ways, the global indigenous peoples movement has been successful at both using and creating international political opportunities to promote their collective, human and cultural rights. In addition to mechanisms related to human rights and indigenous peoples at the United Nations, the movement has also focused on climate change and has made institutional inroads at global climate change conferences and bodies. This paper explores how indigenous peoples organizations and regional networks in Southeast Asia have participated in global climate change politics. Using this case study, the paper examines how and why indigenous people organizations have focused on the issue of climate change, how movement leaders have attempted to use international opportunities to advance their regional and local causes, and the potential benefits and limits of those opportunities.

Author

• Kim D. Reimann, Georgia State University