This study attempts to respond to the positioning of indigenous peoples in the climate era, analyze the treatment faced by indigenous peoples, and explore how forest carbon sinks (not limited to carbon rights or carbon credit calculation) become opportunities for indigenous peoples to develop and adapt to climate.
To this end, the study reviewed domestic media reports from 2010 to 2021 and found that there were few reports on indigenous peoples, climate change and vulnerability (32 articles), the content was often linked to disasters, and related topics such as justice and equality; carbon sink related reports (109 articles) up to 90% refers to forest carbon sinks, and there will be no reports involving indigenous peoples and forest carbon rights until 2021.
Browsing domestic research from 2001 to 2021 through the Government Research Bulletin (GRB), most of the forest carbon sequestration-related research (68 studies) were methodological or quantitative empirical research, policy research was less, and cross-disciplinary forest carbon sequestration legal research was absent. , which needs to be constructed urgently.
Although the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of countries such as Japan, South Korea, China, the United Kingdom and the European Union do not specify the forest carbon sink policy, they all recognize its natural value.
Very few countries associate carbon rights with land or forest ownership (public, private or collective), foreign trends also present multiple carbon sink methodologies but less institutional construction.
In order to popularize the indigenous people's understanding of this topic, the research team has promoted an exhibition with the theme of "Forest Carbon Sequestration and Climate Adjustment" in 15 rural elementary schools in remote areas in the western region, serving 860 students. And organized three workshops on "Forest Carbon Sink, Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change", inviting more than 100 people to participate in the discussion.
The research team believes that indigenous people in Taiwan are isolated from forest-related mitigation and adaptation work by the state due to multiple restrictions such as national forests, land use and environmental regulations Indigenous peoples are unable to obtain the finance, technology and capacity building required for climate adaptation, which is not conducive to the achievement of Taiwan's net zero goal.
In order to reverse the above disadvantages, the immediately feasible recommendation put forward by the research team is as follows: (1) Pay attention to the depth of forest carbon sink issues, deepen the connotation of capacity building and continue to conduct climate education in the indigenous areas; The mid-term recommendations include: (2) Clarify the true meaning of forest carbon sinks, assign “non-carbon benefits” and incorporate them into the design of the carbon offset system. (3) Within the net-zero path, create conditions for indigenous people to participate in the management of forest carbon sinks, and start from the Aboriginal Reserve; And the long-term recommendation is: (4) Recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and expand the scope of forest carbon sinks to traditional areas to respond to the insufficiency of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice.
