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Indigenous communities make clean energy drive work for, not against, them

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The traditional territory of the Walpole Island First Nation in Canada covers a vast area of present southwestern Ontario and southeastern Michigan. Marshy deltas, tallgrass prairies and oak savannas are found here. Since time immemorial, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa peoples have used this area for hunting, fishing and gathering. Now, a new kind of resource covers part of their land: wind turbines. The dozens of turbines, owned in partnership between other First Nations and energy companies, mean that Walpole Island First Nation now plays an active role in pushing forward the clean energy transition. While a growing number of renewable energy projects are either Indigenous-led or include Indigenous people as partners, many still come at the expense of Indigenous rights. Poor access to capital and finance, lack of exemplary partnerships, and poor policy guidelines around land rights, consultation processes and cultural considerations often mean that Indigenous communities have been sidelined in renewable energy development projects. Without concerted efforts to change these trends, they’re likely to continue: recent studies have shown that as many as 54% of all transition minerals occur on or near land occupied by Indigenous communities. “As Indigenous Peoples, we recognize and support the global shift towards renewable energy,” Joan Carling, executive director of Indigenous Peoples Rights International, said at a press conference on the energy transition at this year’s U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). “But it can’t happen at the expense of Indigenous people. Right now, we are going towards a new type of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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