As CI prepares for World Water Week later this month, the human connection to fresh water is evident everywhere I look. Although we may take it for granted in developed countries, access to fresh water underlies all of our other concerns; without it, we would cease to exist. Yet despite this reliance, climate change and other man-made forces continue to threaten water security around the world.
No one is immune to the issues facing freshwater ecosystems. However, it is becoming clear that small indigenous communities in isolated areas are among the first to feel the impacts of these threats.
Members of the Kamayurá tribe in the Amazon are slowly going hungry as deforestation and climate change make their homeland hotter and drier, shrinking water supplies and reducing fish stocks. On another continent, in the “cradle of civilization” between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, drought, pollution and lashes between Iraq, Syria and Turkey are taking a toll on the livelihoods of local Marsh Arabs. They are now are being forced to import fish from Iran, an unsettling turn of events for a culture which has relied on fishing for millennia.
As in the past, modern societies faced with catastrophic changes in their environment must either adapt or relocate. While relocation is without a doubt far less tragic than death, it is a difficult choice for many due to high costs and the fact that as the global population grows, there are fewer and fewer places to go.
Also, in assimilating with other communities, cultures risk losing their unique languages, art, traditions and overall worldview – regional knowledge which has been molded by the communities’ past. If lost, the lack of this knowledge could make finding regional environmental solutions even more of a challenge.
CI is working with indigenous communities and organizations all over the world to incorporate their cultural heritage and unique perspectives into regional conservation practices. Through this work, community members have a bigger chance of mitigating and adapting to change rather than disappearing along with their homelands.