Archipelago of Hope: Indigenous People Confront Climate Change

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. 

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place this week in Bonn, Germany this week. For the first time, the Assembly of First Nations is joining as an official delegate. 

There are 370 million indigenous peoples around the world and while they occupy about 20 percent of the world's land, they live in locations that represent about 80 percent of the world's biological diversity. 

After 20 years working with indigenous communities, Gleb Raygorodetsky learned how they have incorporated creative solutions in their everyday lives to meet modern challenges. Indigenous communities around the world invited him to experience their traditions and to share with him their wisdom and adaptability as urbanization and development encroaches on their lands. He compiled his travels into a newly-released book, called "Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom of Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change."

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz worked for nearly three decades on the drafting and adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Tauli-Corpuz is an indigenous leader from the Kankanaey Igorot people of the Cordillera region in the Philippines. and a U.N. Special Rapporteur on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Here, Raygorodetsky and Tauli-Corpuz explain how indigenous groups from around the world can leverage their traditional knowledge to support global climate change solutions. 

Semion Khudi, a Nenets, guides his reindeer team out of the waters of Seyakha River as part of the summer migration.

(Gleb Raygorodetsky/The Takeaway)

Assam tea tree flowers are highly valued and dried and sold. They are more valuable in their role in attracting wild bees.

(Gleb Raygorodetsky/The Takeaway)

Eli Enns, co-director of Tla-o-qui-hat Tribal Parks embraces his people's traditional territory.

(Gleb Raygorodetsky/The Takeaway)

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich.