The people of the lush tropical rainforests of Panama and Brazil possess age-old wisdom to protect the Earth and these secrets must be harnessed to save the planet, say two women who call the areas home.
Sara Omi of the Embera people in Panama and Cristiane Juliao of the Pankararu people in Brazil are at Cop28 with a common goal: to ensure the world’s indigenous people have a presence in climate negotiations and in the distribution of funds to protect the environment.
Ms Omi is her community’s first lawyer and Ms Juliao is the first among her people to study for a doctorate.
Both have launched battles from within their villages to protect their heritage, gain title rights over ancestral land and also protect women from discrimination and violence.
In their largely patriarchal societies, the women have taken on leadership roles and want to connect their communities with the outside world to be part of climate solutions and conservation efforts.
It is important we reclaim our voices
Sara Omi of the Embera people
“Our people have done the work to protect Mother Earth for thousands of years. I want to raise the call so people listen to our experiences,” said Ms Omi.
“This is our truth. Ancestral knowledge transferred by grandparents to young people has immense value.
“That is work our women are doing – recovering information from the elders to regenerate the land, to keep the forests alive.
“We also have genuine solutions in ancestral medicine. We must join forces to save our people and save the planet.”
The UN estimates that there are more than 370 million indigenous people in the world across 5,000 cultures who speak more than 4,000 languages.
They share common challenges of deforestation, land rights abuses and illegal exploitation of territories rich in minerals.
Protecting a way of life
Ms Omi is among many indigenous people keen to show how they can contribute with their wealth of knowledge on sustainable land management to preserve forests, reduce erosion, conserve water and build soil nutrients.
She heads several national and international alliances and was recognised by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America for her role in defending territorial rights and the rights of women.
In an interview with The National, Ms Omi spoke of wanting to protect the way of life of the 600 people of the Ipeti Embera community in eastern Panama.
She lives by a river in a cluster of wooden and thatched-leaf roofed homes raised on stilts – a symbol of how her grandparents’ generation attempted to resist their age-old village being taken over for a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
“Each of the trunks of wood represents a member of my family and is a symbol of their resistance,” said the 37-year-old lawyer, whose face lights up when she speaks of mi casa, “my home”.
“It shows how they took care of the community and reminds us how despite their fight, my grandparents were forced to move out of our ancestors’ home.
“My grandparents tell me it was really sad to see water cover their sacred territory.”
There was irrevocable damage done as families split up, with many settling in a forest less than an hour away from their old homes.
“Despite our crisis and the crisis with climate change, we live in harmony with nature,” she said.
Reclaim voices
As a lawyer, Ms Omi has dedicated her life to protecting her tribal the territory – the local land is a hotspot for land grabbers and illegal mining.
She makes it clear that most times, indigenous people have not given their consent to land takeovers and received no money.
“All the time we hear about development, development,” she said.
“We are on the other side and receive all the bad consequences of that development, like how my grandparents suffered.
“Development has not come to our territory.
“There is still no recognition of our rights or any understanding that our traditions are the solutions for the climate crisis we are facing.”
Ms Omi is following in her mother’s footsteps in challenging deeply entrenched patriarchal traditions to take on senior community roles usually reserved for men.
“I resist violations against women inside and outside my community,” she said.
“My mother was the first traditional woman who broke barriers.
“I’ve heard the same words – that women cannot lead and should not be in high positions.
“I work with climate change and on violence against women.
“When I see a new tragedy, I go to work.
“It is important women know our rights and we reclaim our voices.”
Guardians of the forest
Indigenous people make up about 5 per cent of the world’s population but constitute 15 per cent of the world’s poor, according to the UN.
Industry and non-government groups often pledge finance to fight global deforestation but this rarely reaches people who live in the forest.
Indigenous groups are asking for direct funding to support sustainable projects and that these lessons can then be used globally.
Ms Juliao represents the Pankararu people who live in the forests of north-eastern Brazil.
She lives with her siblings in their parents’ house in Brejo dos Padres village and is studying for a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Rio de Janeiro.
“There are always people saying the region is inhospitable and filled with misery,” she said.
“We face so many issues of deforestation, mining, garbage and lack of hygienic conditions.
“Our people lack access to education, nutrition and then we have the climate crisis to battle.”
Both Ms Juliao and Ms Omi are part of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, which represents 24 nations at Cop28.
“We are chosen to conserve the earth,” said the 45-year-old, who wore hand-carved jewellery made by indigenous women.
“But we are always colliding with political systems that created these issues.
“My ambition is to give visibility to what our people can do because we are the guardians of the forest.”
Ms Juliao stressed the importance of coexistence.
“Our forests hold genuine magic because we connect with fauna, flowers,” she said of the 8,000 Pankararu people.
“We need to connect with our spirituality but degradation of land destroys this.
“Our people can teach how to take care of plants, trees, the water.
“We can fight this [climate change] together.”
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Euro 2020 qualifier
Norway v Spain, Saturday, 10.45pm, UAE
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
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Arsenal's pre-season fixtures
Thursday Beat Sydney 2-0 in Sydney
Saturday v Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney
Wednesday v Bayern Munich in Shanghai
July 22 v Chelsea in Beijing
July 29 v Benfica in London
July 30 v Sevilla in London
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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