Videos uploaded by unuchannel

Indeed, climate change poses a direct threat to many indigenous and marginalized societies due to their continuing reliance upon resource-based livelihoods. Thus, there is a need to understand the specific vulnerabilities and adaptation capacities of indigenous and marginalized communities. Indigenous and marginalized peoples, however, are not just victims of climate change. Their accumulated knowledge makes them excellent observers of environmental change and related impacts. Attentiveness to environmental variability, shift and trends is an integral part of their ways of life. Community-based and local knowledge may thus offer valuable insights into environmental change due to climate change, and complement broader-scale scientific research with local precision and nuance.

As of September 2011, the main global REDD database had 480 registered projects in 36 countries amounting to $3.35bn. The vast majority of these projects are on Indigenous lands and/or territories. The scale of the REDD experiment, combined with the lack of relevant experience with REDD+ projects, has meant that projects have confronted considerable problems and delays. A recent global review of REDD+ projects noted that they face many challenges, including: criteria for sustainable forest management, monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, local tenure arrangements, permanence and baseline issues that can be effectively addressed only if local communities are able to properly participate in the REDD+ projects.

Energy L'Énergie Energía Энергия In addition to being owners of large carbon sinks, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are also actively participating in various other important mitigation activities such as producing renewable energies in their territories (wind, small hydropower and geothermal), and resource management projects that reduce pressure on natural resources and enhance local adaptive capacity. Read full UN report, download this video and find other multi-lingual resources here: www.unutki.org/climate

shot by Jess translated by FSDA

Shot by Jess translated by FSDA

Located on the eastern shore of Australias tropical north, Shiptons Flat is home to Marilyn, a Kuku Nyungkal Aboriginal woman, and her family. She has been living here the ancestral way far removed from the services and conveniences of modern life as part of the sublime performance of nature. Like her ancestors before her, Marilyn walks through the Nyungkal bubu, the Nyungkals country, acknowledging and conversing with the Spirit beings around her.

The glaciers of the Pamir mountains, which provide over 50% of Central Asia's water resources, are rapidly melting at a rate similar to Greenland's continental glacier. Three generations of of Pamiri women share the impacts of the melt and decreasing water levels.

Shepherd Dootkasy and his wide Anarkul share their family's observations and traditional adaptation to the changing climate in highland pastures of Kyrgyzstan's Tian Shan mountains.

Slava Cheltuev, is a Telengit community leader and shaman from the Russian Altai's high altitude Kosh Agach district. Whilst traversing Altai's sacred lands, he reflects on our 21st century world and stresses the importance of reviving vital traditional knowledge - age-old wisdom that instruct the respectful and harmonious relationship between local environment and human behaviour.

Arnhem Land - Aboriginal fire ecologist, Dean Yibarbuk, explains how traditional fire management practices have kept the country healthy for thousands of years. Recently, his mob at Wardakken have been working with local scientists to adapt traditional fire management to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This fire abatement scheme of Australia's Western Arnhemland is a carbon offset community programme, gaining a lot of international attention. Download Carbon Guide for Northern Indigenous Australians: unutki.org/news.php?news_id=60&doc_id=101 To see other stories in the UNU's Indigenous Perspectives of Climate change videobrief series: ourworld.unu.edu unutki.org/news.php?news_id=51&doc_id=7

Deep in the remaining old growth forests of Borneo, the Setulang Dayak village guards its forest with deep commitment. To date, the village's traditional law of Tana Olen (forbidden forest), withstands increasing pressure from encroaching logging industries. Now as rapid development rolls in, the village is trying to secure sustainable and forest-friendly future, including a eco-tourism venture and carbon credits. To see other stories in the UNU's Indigenous Perspectives of Climate change videobrief series: ourworld.unu.edu unutki.org/news.php?news_id=51&doc_id=7

Australian coasts Each centimetre of sea-level rise will lead to increasing impacts on low-lying coastal land. Modelling predicts the inundation would cause sandy beaches on the Australian coastline to recede by the order of 100 times the vertical sea-level rise. For example, if the sea level rises by a metre, the coastal beaches could retreat by about 100 metres unless some preventative action is taken. Given that about 85 per cent of Australia's population lives within an hour's drive of the coast, this is particularly relevant.

In Japan, one of the richest, most technological and urbanized countries in the world, more than 20% of the population is now over 65. This is part of a global ageing trend that has serious consequences for our economy and society. The Wisdom Years documentary offers glimpses into the urban lives of 70, 90 and 100 year old Japanese people and their secrets to maintaining physical, mental and social health. Through scientific breakthroughs, and these everyday stories, we witness the transformation of the senior citizen in the 21st Century. A series of documentaries under the UNU Project on Library of e-Case Studies and Documentaries and the World Health Organization Kobe Centre Healthy Urbanization Project. mediastudio.unu.edu www.who.or.jp