NYC Climate Week 2024
Centering Indigenous Peoples' Guardianship as a Key Climate Solution
Join Nia Tero at NYC Climate Week 2024
During NYC Climate Week 2024, it is critical for the health of our planet to center Indigenous Peoples' guardianship of collective territories.
Every year, thought leaders, activists, and innovators from around the globe gather at NYC Climate Week to advance solutions tackling the climate crisis. This event coincides with the convening of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
At Nia Tero, we recognize that Indigenous Peoples are at the heart of these solutions.
Indigenous Peoples play a pivotal role in upholding some of the planet's healthiest ecosystems — vital for climate resilience, food security, freshwater, and biodiversity. Our work, rooted in collaboration with Indigenous communities, ensures they have the security, economic power, and cultural independence to steward and protect their lands.
Our partnerships span across Amazonia, the Pacific Islands, and North America, supporting Indigenous Peoples who share collective territories and have established robust governance systems to safeguard their lands and waters.
We are proud to amplify the message that Indigenous guardianship of collective territories represents one of the most effective strategies for protecting healthy ecosystems in the face of climate change. This guardianship is crucial to mitigating the climate crisis and building a sustainable future for all.
Follow us on social media throughout Climate Week for the latest updates, news, and takeaways from our partners and leadership on the ground:
NYC Climate Week 2024 Event Highlights
Join us throughout NYC Climate Week from September 22 - 29, 2024, as we join our Indigenous partners in centering the role of Indigenous guardianship of collective territories as a time-tested climate solution.
September 21, 2024 - September 23, 2024
Emerson Collective's Climate Science Fair on the High Line
Join Nia Tero during Climate Week at the Climate Science Fair, presented by Emerson Collective with the High Line. The multi-day event is a celebration of optimism at work, innovation at scale and community in action for a just and sustainable world.
Details
September 23, 2024
The Wayfinders Film Series Premiere at AMNH
The Wayfinders film series will premiere during New York Climate Week 2024, as part of the American Museum of Natural History's Climate Week public programming.
Details
September 23, 2024 - September 24, 2024
Nature Positive Hub
The Nature4Climate coalition is returning to Climate Week New York City. Join Nia Tero alongside N4C, NGOs, and private sector sponsors for two days of discussions and networking focused on how to build a nature-positive economy at The Nature Hub.
Details
Messages about Indigenous Guardianship as a Key Climate Solution
Hear below from Nia Tero's Board, Indigenous Advisory Council, and global team to learn about the importance of Indigenous Peoples' guardianship of collective territories as a solution to the climate crisis.
"This is their homeland. This is where they come from."
Brenda Toineeta Pipestem
(Eastern Band of Cherokee, United States)
Nia Tero Board Member
Brenda Toineeta Pipestem is a Cherokee woman raised in the Wolftown Community on the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina, USA – the homeland of the Aniyvwiya (“the real people”). She has dedicated her life to nurturing her family and empowering tribal communities through law, policy, education, and support of Native artists.
Indigenous guardianship is about recognizing the Indigenous knowledge of Peoples who have no desire to move anywhere else. This is their homeland. This is where they come from, and they have learned how to manage. ... It is way past the time for people to understand that the value system that comes out of being in relationship to the land, to our environment, that is our only way to a sustainable future.”<
--- Brenda Toineeta Pipestem
"There is a way we can do that differently"
Dominique Bikaba
(Bashi Tribe, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Nia Tero Advisory Council
Dominique Bikaba is the Founder and Executive Director of Strong Roots Congo, a grassroots conservation and sustainable development organization operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He holds a degree in Rural Development and a Master's from the Yale School of Forestry.
Part I: Dominique Bikaba
Part II: Dominique Bikaba
“I cannot imagine that we have to kill 15 million people – which have died in Congo – just to collect a few tons of Colton, a few tons of gold. That's not human. There is a way they can do this in a proper way. We need to use these minerals for high tech to sustain our society economically and so on. But there is a way we can do that differently – by respecting people, by respecting human rights, by increasing or supporting local economies. There is a way we can do that.”
--- Dominique Bikaba
‘We have sustainability’
Fancy Brown
(Raga, Penama Province, Vanuatu)
Former Nia Tero Vanuatu Coordinator
Martha Fancy Brown, also known as "Moro" (short for her traditional name Morongofudolua), comes from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. She served as Vanuatu Coordinator at Nia Tero for two years and is passionate about Indigenous guardianship of land and seas, recognizing them as vital safety nets for her people now and in the future.
“We have sustainability, we have development, we have all of those in our system, in our custom system, and we don't need someone to come and tell us what to do because we have lived for thousands of years with our resources, without using them up or without, I'll say without [being] in a bad relationship with them. We are one with them. We know the importance. We know the importance of land in our lives. We know the importance of trees in our life. We know the importance of sea in our life.”
--- Fancy Brown
"I belong to the land."
Joseph Williams
(Māori, Aotearoa)
Nia Tero Board Chair
Justice Joseph Williams has a Bachelor of Laws from the Victoria University of Wellington and a Masters of Laws with Honors from the University of British Columbia. In 1999, Justice Williams became Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court and was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal shortly after in 2000.
“I don't own the land. I belong to the land. The land owns me. I belong to that river. I belong to that mountain. I belong to that ocean. Guardianship gets across the idea that the relationship between me and the planet is one of obligation. ... Guardianship – the idea that human agency must be expended in protecting the places to which it belongs – is a deep cultural and actually legal or constitutional core value of Indigenous People all over the planet.”
--- Joseph Williams
"We monitor nature, we monitor the environment."
Joji Carino
(Ibaloi-Igorot, Cordillera Region, Philippines)
Nia Tero Advisory Council
Joji Carino is an active advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ human rights at the community, national and international levels. She is currently a Senior Policy Advisor and former Director of Forest Peoples Programme (UK).
“Indigenous Peoples do monitoring all the time. We monitor nature. We monitor the environment, the status of our lands, and the status of the plants. But in the past, we haven't really been writing this data. We've been doing it through memory and passing on our knowledge. ... When we have that data, not only are people able to understand in deeper detail what it is we want to work for, but also to hold governments to account when they have obligations to provide social services, to provide housing, to make sure that the water is clean.”
--- Joji Carino
"We are a part of life around us."
Lysa Wini
(Solomon Islands)
Nia Tero Sky Islands Coordinator
Lysa Wini has worked in the conventional conservation world and, as an Indigenous person herself, has worked alongside her fellow Indigenous Solomon Islanders as Nia Tero’s Solomon Islands Coordinator. As she pursues her doctorate, she continuously sees how important Indigenous wisdom is in this dialogue about resources and development.
“Life can only be sustained if you look after each other, look after the sea around you, you look after the ocean around you, you look after the mountains around you and it'll look after you. (...) We are actually a part of life around us and we feel that we have the responsibility to ensure that there's that balance, that life around us is maintained in order to sustain who we are as a people. It is our identity as well.”
--- Lysa Wini
"We understand this concept of managing the resources because we've done it for generations."
Ralph Regenvanu
(Uripiv of Malakua Island, Vanuatu)
Nia Tero Advisory Council
Ralph Regenvanu is an artist, anthropologist and politician, and has been a leading architect of Vanuatu’s cultural renaissance. As the Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Center, he buttressed community efforts across Vanuatu’s 200-plus language groups to value cultural heritage and make it central to development and biodiversity management.
“The majority of the people in the Pacific, in the South Pacific, all the states are majority Indigenous People states. We have people who came from the land, from the sea, and we understand this concept of managing the resources because we've done it for generations, and it's a matter of making sure we don't lose it, as we become more globalized. We need to ensure that is maintained in the future, because it is the only proven sustainable way of managing our resources.”
--- Ralph Regenvanu
"You can't do any climate change adaptation or mitigation work without being in relationship with all beings, human and non-human alike that live there.”
Sherri Mitchell
(Penobscot, Penawahpskek, United States)
Nia Tero Advisory Council
Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset is an Indigenous rights activist, spiritual teacher, and transformational change maker. Sherri was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian reservation (Penawahpskek). She speaks and teaches around the world on issues of Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and spiritual change.
“What Nia Tero is hoping to do is to create an opportunity for Indigenous Peoples to remain in relationship with their places, and to also help others understand the importance of relationship in work that is aimed towards saving the planet. That you can't do conservation work – you can't do any type of environmental protection work, you can't do any climate change adaptation or mitigation work – without being in relationship with all beings.”
--- Sherri Mitchell
"We call it direct access to funds so that Indigenous Peoples receive that support on the ground."
Viviana Figueroa
(Omaguaca-Kolla, Argentina)
Nia Tero Advisory Council
Viviana Figueroa is an international public lawyer with a PhD in law in Agricultural and Mining Law from the University of Buenos Aires. She is an expert on issues of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity.
“We call it direct access to funds so that Indigenous Peoples receive that support on the ground. What we mean is that at the moment, at the international level, there are many funds earmarked for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation. But they are not reaching those who are actually doing biodiversity conservation. ... Therefore, what we are trying to do is that these funds, these mechanisms can be created for funds to be accessed more quickly and more directly or with as few intermediaries as possible. So that the greatest possible amount of funds available for biodiversity and climate change reach Indigenous communities.”
--- Viviana Figueroa
Related Stories
Read, watch, and listen to stories from Indigenous guardians from around the world ahead of Climate Week 2024 in NYC.
