Concluding thoughts

Throughout this blog series I’ve covered how indigenous communities are on the frontlines of environmental change, and often have to face the most severe impacts before any other group of people. However, I also hope that I’ve conveyed that indigenous peoples are not just victims, but resilient activists, and are playing an increasingly prominent role in areas such as climate change action and biodiversity conservation.

When researching and writing posts, I’ve found that it’s very easy to slip into the narrative that indigenous peoples are helpless and passive victims. Reading about the Batwa in Uganda being evicted so ruthlessly from their ancestral homeland to make way for a conservation project was nothing less than heart-breaking. I couldn’t help but think ‘if the good guys have been doing this, then what hope does anyone have against the bad guys?’

Furthermore, when we see images like the effect of rising sea level on Bangladesh for instance, it is hard to imagine how the country’s coastal indigenous communities, such as the Munda, will adapt and survive something as large and daunting as environmental change. 

However, as pointed out in the video below, the onslaught of extreme weather and threats to traditional livelihoods also gives rise to the anger felt by indigenous peoples that they are the most affected by a problem that they did not create. The Batwa have never hunted gorillas, but lost their homes due to overhunting and exploitation by people outside of their community. According to 2013 data, Bangladesh emitted 0.439 metric tons of carbon dioxide per capita, compared to the 16.39 metric tons per capita in the United States. This anger often manifests itself into forms of activism, as shown by the Munda women in the video participating in local decision making and organising to influence Bangladesh’s adaptation policies.

Adapting to environmental fluctuations is also a key component in indigenous knowledge. From the Inupiat on one side of the globe abiding by hunting quotas to preserve whale populations for the future, to the Australian aboriginals on the other side incorporating some invasive species into their cultures and diets, indigenous life develops and adjusts alongside changes in the environment. There is no denying, though, that the scale of the environmental issues that indigenous peoples now face may be unlike anything the previous generations have had to overcome. Environmental concerns including habitat degradation, pollutants, invasive species, biodiversity loss and climate change, are coupled with social issues such as discrimination, economic marginalisation and a disparity in healthcare.

"There are 370 million indigenous people today, in roughly 5000 nations, and these people are tough as diamonds. They are where the hope lies for the future of this planet."- Brian Keene, co-founder of Land is Life 

Nevertheless, since starting this blog, we’ve seen the success of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their fight against fossil fuels and environmental pollution, and we’ve also seen indigenous communities participating at COP13 and being recognised as custodians of biodiversity. Studies have also proven that deforestation rates are lower when indigenous land rights are recognised, helping to keep carbon out of the atmosphere. Not only are indigenous and rural communities adapting on a local scale, but are becoming more and more recognised in global dialogues, and moving away from being seen as passive victims to becoming resilient change-makers. By now, it goes without saying that indigenous voices and the messages they convey are very powerful, but in the end we all need to listen. 

Environmental Change and Health: A summary

It is expected that climate change will cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. The potential health impacts of environmental change are not distributed equally across the globe or among social classes. Global warming may have some benefits in temperate regions, such as fewer winter deaths and an increase in crop yields. On the other hand, as we have seen throughout this blog series, diseases resulting from climate change, habitat destruction, and environmental contamination has, and will continue to have, a powerful effect on indigenous health.

What is health?

The World Health Organisation describes the concept of health as a 'state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. However, Green et al. acknowledge that in many ways, Indigenous views of health can be more complex, abstract, and multifaceted than the Western biomedical consensus. A sense of identity, ancestry, language and a connection to the land are also intrinsic to indigenous concepts of health. 

Aboriginal health care training

Pathogenic disease

Increasing global temperatures and extreme weather could create a more favourable environment for disease transmission. As I mentioned in previous blogs, persistent floods in Uganda have led to more outbreaks of waterborne diseases among the Batwa, and hot, dry conditions in Australia may cause a spike in bacterial diarrhoea and Dengue fever in the Aboriginal community. A similar situation is likely to be seen in Asia, where diarrhoea incidence is expected to increase as floods and droughts become more frequent and freshwater availability decreases. Droughts in particular can increase pathogen concentration, as the pathogens multiply at increased rates in less available water.

Lifestyle diseases

Diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer are usually rare in populations surviving on a traditional diet. However, millions of Indigenous people now dwell in urban areas, and so their diets are often higher in calories, fat and salt than those a few generations before them.

In the U.S., the aforementioned illnesses are increasing among tribes as access to traditional food is restricted by pollution, urbanisation and policy changes. Pacific islanders also suffer from high levels of obesity due to an increased consumption of imported, processed food in place of traditional foods. Up to 80% of women in American Samoa are obese. Micronutrient deficiencies are also common, with anaemia being prevalent amongst pregnant women and children.

Environmental contamination

Whilst Arctic environments may appear pristine on the surface, indigenous peoples in the Arctic are some of the most chemically contaminated ethnic groups. Since the early 1970s, an accumulation of manmade chemicals in the Arctic raised concerns about toxic substances contaminating marine animals and humans. According to one paper published by Jens Hansen, Inuits are the highest exposed to heavy metals such as methyl mercury, as it accumulates in marine organisms, which the Inuits rely on for food. Another particularly dangerous group of chemical compounds is the Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Using PCBs in products such as paints and fluorescent lighting is now banned, but those that have already been released into the environment will take a long time to break down. At high concentrations, PCBs can be lethal to humans, and at lower concentrations can disrupt hormones and damage reproductive and immune systems.

Since the publication of a study by Dewailly et al. in 1989, we have known that the breast milk of indigenous women in Quebec has a higher concentration of PCBs than anywhere else in the world. Diets in this region consist of large amounts of fish and meat, in which the chemical accumulates and enters the food chain. In the study, the average level of PCBs in non-indigenous populations in Quebec was around 0.77mg/kg, whilst levels in indigenous women averaged around 3.60mg/kg, and even reached 14.7mg/kg.

Aconitum heterophyllum

Traditional medicines

Biodiversity loss resulting from habitat degradation, invasive species, and climate change, reduces the availability of traditional remedies, such as medicinal plants. A ten-year study by Prakash Kala published in 2004 assessed the population status of medicinal plants in the Indian Himalayas. Of the 60 species studied, 22% where critically endangered, 16% were endangered and a further 27% were vulnerable.

According to the indigenous healers, approximately 45 different ailments can be treated with various parts of the plants included in the study. These medicinal plants face numerous threats, including habitat loss, introduction of alien species, over-grazing of livestock, climate change, unregulated tourism and commercial collection, and road construction. For example, the tubers Aconitum heterophyllum are traditionally used to treat diarrhoea and fever, but overexploitation and illegal collection has resulted in an Endangered classification by the IUCN.

Summary

Not only does environmental change increases the prevalence of diseases, through both the spread of pathogens and the loss of traditional diets, but also reduces the availability of traditional remedies that have been used for generations. The impacts of biodiversity loss most negatively affects marginalised groups, which often includes indigenous peoples, as health care is mostly unaffordable or inaccessible. Athough I haven't covered mental health in as much detail here, throughout the previous 'spotlight' posts I have explored how climate change and biodiversity loss also causes stress, depression, and grief, and that cultural identity and a connection to the natural environment is a key factor in Indigenous health.