Kathamandu, Oct 10: A two-day workshop on “Climate Change, REDD+, GCF, NAP and NDC and Indigenous Peoples” has been organized by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Climate Change Partnership Program at Hotel Country Villa in Nagarkot on October 03 and 04, 2021. The main objective of the program was to empower the members of the NEFIN and the representatives of the IPs organizations on the issues of climate change, REDD+, and land rights and their issues and rights related to these issues. A total of 18 participants including 9 females and 9 males participated in the program.
The organizer was well aware of the risk of the Covid-19 epidemic and disseminated information, and provided safety measures such as face shields, face masks, and sanitizers during the sessions. Physical distance and other health precautions were taken during the seminar. The event was conducted among a limited number of participants due to the risk of Covid–19 infection.
The workshop highlighted the main issues and decisions related to climate change and indigenous peoples in international instruments including the Paris Agreement and the Cancun Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In this context, the relevant national and international laws as well as the commitments made by the Nepal government and the obligations created by it were also discussed.
Working papers were presented by the various resource persons on climate change adaptation and mitigation, indigenous peoples issues in REDD+, National Adaptation Plan (NAP), Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Document of Nepal-2020, Climate Finance and its operations in Nepal, Green Climate Fund (GCF) and projects, and meaning and context of IPs policy and provisions.
After the presentations on climate change and related policies, programs and projects, participants had a collective discussion on issues related to land rights, violations of IPs land rights, and the strategies IPs adopted to overcome the issues.