North America | Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform

Indigenous Peoples in North America are adapting to climate change using their time-tested knowledge-systems, methods and practices and the assertion of their rights, inter-alia, to their tradition lands and resources, cultural heritage, Self-determination, Treaties, and Free Prior and Informed Consent. Through practices such as the examples on this page and in the info hub / resources section below, adaptive capacity and resilience to the impacts of climate change are supported and ways of life and livelihoods can continue.

Indigenous Nations in British Colombia Canada have planted fruit trees and replanted native forests. The Yaqui and Tohono O’odham Peoples of Arizona USA and Sonora Mexico have replanted traditional drought-resistant food and medicinal plants, revitalized inter-generational knowledge-sharing, and repatriated original seeds to restore desert biological diversity. In recent years, the Tribal Nations of the plains region of the US and Canada have restored populations of buffalo, a traditional food source that is resilient to a range of weather conditions, and is also central to their cultural practices and the health of native grasslands. These and other efforts by Indigenous Peoples in North America to restore their traditional practices also revitalize the natural ecosystems of the region, supporting resilience to climate change in a holistic manner.

For more information as how indigenous peoples across this region and the world are exchanging experiences, building capacity for engagement, and contributing towards climate policies and actions, please explore the LCIPP dedicated web portal.

Current member/alternate from the region

Current members

Graeme Reed

greed@afn.ca

Graeme Reed is the regional representative of North America.

Bio and photo coming soon.

Former member/alternate from the region

Former members

Andrea Carmen

Former members

Chris Honahnie

Andrea Carmen is the formal regional representative of North America.

Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation, has been a staff member of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) since 1983 and became Executive Director in 1992. She has decades of experience as a human rights trainer and observer around the world and was IITC’s team leader for work on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 1997 she was one of two indigenous representatives invited to formally address the UN General Assembly for the first time in history at the UN Earth Summit +5. In 2006, Andrea was Rapporteur for the UN “Expert Seminar on Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and their Relationship to Land”, the first time an indigenous woman had been selected to serve as a Rapporteur for an UN Expert Seminar.

Andrea has been an expert presenter at many UN bodies and seminars addressing a range of issues relevant to food sovereignty, human rights, environmental health and climate change. From 2010 – 2018, Andrea served as one of the two representatives from North America on the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change Global Steering Committee. In February 2019, Andrea was selected by indigenous peoples in North America to serve as their representative on the FWG for its first three years of operation. She also serves as an advisor for the National Congress of American Indians Climate Change Action force and the 2020 and 2021 National Tribal Leadership Climate Change Summits.

The LCIPP community mourns the passing of brother Christopher Honahnie, former FWG alternate representative and an indigenous youth champion

Indigenous Knowledge Holders regionally nominated to attend LCIPP Mandated Events at COP