Nationally Determined Contribution in Asia: Are governments recognizing the rights, roles and contributions of Indigenous Peoples?

The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) is a regional organization founded in 1992 by Indigenous Peoples’ movements. AIPP is committed to the cause of promoting and defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights and human rights and articulating issues of relevance to Indigenous Peoples.

AIPP in partnership with its member and partner organizations has been carrying out a series of awareness raising and capacity building initiatives on climate change in Asia since 2009. Our policy briefing papers and training manuals on climate change and the rights of Indigenous Peoples have been published in English, and in national and Indigenous languages. We are proud to see that these knowledge products developed for Asian region are being contextualized and used by Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in Africa and Latin America.

AIPP partnership on climate change has empowered Indigenous Peoples, resulting in constructive policy engagement and influence at local, national, and regional levels. AIPP has also been active as the focal point of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) within the UNFCCC processes and has been consistently working to support the international climate movement of representatives of Indigenous Peoples from the seven socio-cultural regions of the World.

With the adoption of the Universal Agreement on Climate Change, popularly known as the Paris Agreement, the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform and the submissions of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Parties, AIPP and its members and partners felt the need to build and strengthen an evidence-based policy advocacy to amplify the roles and contributions of Indigenous Peoples in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

In this regard, AIPP in consultation with its members and partners undertook an unprecedented effort for policy research in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to shed light on how the rights, roles and knowledge of indigenous men, women, youth, and persons with disabilities are addressed in national-level climate policies and plans, such as NDCs, REDD+ strategies, national adaptation plans, and relevant environmental laws in Asia. We have also prepared regional report that synthesizes the findings and recommendations from the country-level studies.

The country reports and this regional report will serve as baseline documents for AIPP and its member and partner organizations working on climate change and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our sisters and brothers to utilize the findings of the country and regional reports to advance the recognition and respect of the rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples on climate policies. We also call on the UNFCCC Parties, UNFCCC Secretariat, UNFCCC Constituencies, and relevant actors to support and respond to the recommendations highlighted in the reports. We will annually update the country reports and the regional report to monitor the implementation of the NDCs at national level and track regional and international climate action commitments as they relate to the rights of indigenous men, women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

Kittisak Rattanakrajangsri
Chairperson of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)

Click here to download the Regional Report
Click here to read the Mekong Sub-Regional Report
Click here to read the Southeast Asia Sub-Regional Report
Click here to read the South Asia Sub-Regional Report
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