Involving indigenous communities in disaster risk reduction activities can save lives during catastrophes, experts with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) said on the eve of the International Day for Disaster Reduction 2015.
PAHO/WHO calls for more collaboration between governments and indigenous communities in preparing for emergencies and disasters
Washington, D.C., 6 October 2015 (PAHO/WHO) -- Involving indigenous communities in disaster risk reduction activities can save lives during catastrophes, experts with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) said on the eve of the International Day for Disaster Reduction 2015.
Building on a growing recognition that mainstream methods of disaster preparedness and mitigation have left indigenous people and their deep knowledge on the sidelines, PAHO/WHO is calling for new disaster risk reduction models based on close collaboration with the communities often most affected by catastrophes, both natural and man-made.
Last September, for the first time ever, indigenous delegates from 10 countries of the Americas met in Vancouver, Canada, for two days of talks convened by PAHO/WHO with co-host, the Pacific NorthWest Border Health Alliance Indigenous Peoples Workgroup. A key finding of those meetings was that, to be effective, disaster risk reduction initiatives must be crafted with the full participation of indigenous peoples.
That finding is also the focus of this year's International Day for Disaster Reduction, Oct. 13, an annual awareness day sponsored by the United Nations since 1989. In recent years, the awareness campaign has focused on groups considered vulnerable in disasters: children, women and girls, the disabled and the elderly. This year's theme, "Knowledge for Life," reflects the growing realization that harnessing local knowledge and engaging indigenous communities saves lives.
"What is true for indigenous people around the world is nowhere more true than in the Americas," said Ciro Ugarte, director of PAHO/WHO's Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief program. "Who knows more about their lands and their environment than the people who live closest to it? We need to listen to indigenous groups, crafting bottom-up solutions with them instead of dictates from above."
Mainstream disaster science and policymaking has for decades marginalized indigenous and traditional forms of knowledge and practice, especially in Western industrialized countries. But since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami— where a lack of communication with and understanding of coastal indigenous people cost thousands of lives—disaster research has increasingly focused on merging indigenous and scientific knowledge to more effectively reduce risk, improve response and recovery, and adapt to long-term climate change.
More than 60 million indigenous people live in the Americas. Often impoverished, isolated and discriminated against, they frequently lack access to health care, transportation, safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, making them particularly vulnerable when disaster strikes. Diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria disproportionately affect their communities, despite strides made by public health authorities to reach them with vaccines and treatment.
Climate change further exacerbates the difficulties faced by vulnerable indigenous communities. Deforestation and forest fragmentation in the Amazon, melting ice in the Arctic, rising sea levels and ocean acidification all put indigenous groups in danger when extreme weather strikes.
In Peru, a country with 52 distinct indigenous peoples, new roads built down the eastern slopes of the Andes have led to an increase in the number of landslides since the 1980s.
In Mexico, the Tarahumara indigenous people were severely affected by a 2012 drought that slashed their corn and bean harvests.
And across the Americas, indigenous people often live on steep mountain slopes, low coastal areas and other lands at high risk of earthquakes, mudslides, avalanches, hurricanes and floods.
Despite the acute risks indigenous people face, in the Americas as elsewhere, government organizations dominated by non-indigenous decision-makers typically prepare laws and disaster response plans. Indigenous peoples often do not have adequate opportunities to participate in their design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
PAHO/WHO is working with its Member States and partner organizations, especially indigenous groups, to incorporate into disaster planning a series of actions to mitigate disaster impact on indigenous peoples. Among them:
- Securing the input of indigenous peoples and their cultural and environmental knowledge in the development and implementation of government disaster risk reduction plans
- Integrating an indigenous perspective into government disaster plans that reflects how climate change is contributing to increased disaster risk
- Considering how infrastructure development and climate change impact the disaster vulnerability of indigenous peoples
- Collaborating with indigenous groups in the design and implementation of early warning systems in order to ensure their linguistic and cultural relevance.
- Encouraging indigenous groups to develop, with the participation of the entire community, their own community-level preparedness and risk reduction plans and strategies that include actionable contingency plans to protect lives, livelihoods and critical infrastructure.
