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Indigenous leadership scores big wins in fight against fossil fuel projects

Scientists are increasingly recognising what indigenous peoples have always known: stewardship by communities who never lost their connection to the natural world is the best way to preserve the Earth’s remaining wild habitats. Now, the critical role of indigenous activism in opposing climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects is also beyond dispute. A report co-authored by the Indigenous Environmental Network and Oil Change International showed that indigenous resistance had been key to blocking at least eight major projects, including the Keystone XL pipeline and Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas project in the United States, the Teck Frontier tar sands mine in Canada, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with other smaller developments also halted.

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