ABSTRACT

The climate vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples is closely related to their marginalization from decision-making processes. Although the engagement of Indigenous Peoples in climate policy is increasingly promoted at the international level, there are still multiple barriers to their meaningful participation at the national level. Through an ethnography of the State, this article analyses how both the State's political orientation, and its interpretations of different stakeholders, influence the participation of Mapuche-Pehuenche communities in two mitigation projects implemented in Lonquimay, Chile, in the southern Andes. This study is based on a review of State policies for Indigenous Peoples, participant observations of the mitigation projects’ implementation, and qualitative data collected through 26 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The study uses an ethnographic approach to allow an understanding of how the State is constructed in the face of climate change and of Indigenous Peoples’ vulnerability. The State project, which shapes the relationship of the Mapuche with their territory, with the State, and among themselves, is reflected in policy implementation patterns and the existing economic development model. All these relationships influence how officials and the Mapuche interpret and implement climate policy. This article demonstrates that by neglecting these relationships, climate policy risks being less effective in part as it reinforces the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples. While Indigenous Peoples’ participation poses significant intercultural challenges, it also yields valuable lessons that can promote processes of institutional transformation that contribute to climate mitigation, such as strengthening local capacities and questioning beliefs that have led to climate change.

Key policy insights:

• Indigenous Peoples’ recognition and early participation in climate policy have a transformative potential.

• Counterproductive patterns of policy implementation in Indigenous Peoples’ territories constrain climate policy coherence.

• To promote the meaningful engagement of Indigenous Peoples in climate policy, states must address long-standing conflicts and underlying factors that produce contextual vulnerability to climate change, while strengthening the intercultural competencies that allow a respectful approach to Indigenous knowledge systems and protocols.

• Officials must be open to transforming their own knowledge, practices, and values to put climate policy at the service of Indigenous communities.

摘要

土著人民的气候脆弱性与他们在决策过程中的边缘化密切相关。尽管在国际层面越来越多地促进土著人民参与气候政策，但他们在国家层面的有意义参与仍然存在多重障碍。通过国家民族志，本文分析了国家的政治取向及其对不同利益相关者的解释如何影响 Mapuche-Pehuenche 社区参与在安第斯山脉南部的智利 Lonquimay 实施的两个缓解项目。本研究基于对土著人民国家政策的审查、参与者对缓解项目实施的观察、通过与主要利益相关者的 26 次半结构化访谈收集定性数据。该研究使用民族志方法来了解国家在面对气候变化和土著人民的脆弱性时是如何构建的。国家项目塑造了马普切人与其领土、国家以及他们之间的关系，反映在政策实施模式和现有的经济发展模式中。所有这些关系都会影响官员和马普切人如何解释和实施气候政策。本文表明，如果忽视这些关系，气候政策可能会在一定程度上降低效力，因为它加剧了对土著人民的排斥。虽然土著人民的参与带来了重大的跨文化挑战，

关键政策见解：

• 土著人民对气候政策的认可和早期参与具有变革潜力。

• 土著人民领土上政策实施的适得其反的模式限制了气候政策的一致性。

• 为了促进土著人民有意义地参与气候政策，各国必须解决长期存在的冲突和导致气候变化的背景脆弱性的潜在因素，同时加强跨文化能力，以尊重土著知识体系和协议。

• 官员们必须乐于改变自己的知识、做法和价值观，让气候政策为土著社区服务。