Our role and responsibility, as human beings, is to live peacefully and in a harmonious balance with all life. Our cultures are based on this harmony, peace and ecological balance which ensures long term sustainability for future generations. This concept of sustainability must be the basis of the decisions and negotiations underway on national and international levels. Climate imbalance will cause the greatest suffering to the Indigenous peoples and most pristine ecosystems globally. The increasing demand and use of fossil fuels continues to have adverse impacts on natural forests.
Natural forests are critical parts of the ecosystems that maintain global climate stability.
The mining and drilling for coal, oil, and gas, as well as other mineral extractions, results in substantial local environmental consequences, including severe degradation of air, forests, rivers, oceans and farmlands. Cultural impacts, forced removal, land appropriation, destruction of sacred and historical significant areas, breakdown of Indigenous social systems, and violence against women and children are too often the outcomes of fossil fuel development on Indigenous Peoples. Fossil fuel extraction areas are home to some of Mother Earth's last and most vulnerable Indigenous populations, resulting in accelerated losses of biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and ultimately in ethnocide and genocide. This restoration must be done such that Indigenous Peoples can continue traditional uses of their lands. This is a partial list.