Indigenous Peoples have a right to draw resources from the local environment and an obligation to follow traditional practices to protect it.

WORDS Saw Moe Aung | IMAGES Karen Environmental and Social Action Network

T’Ku Der village, Karen State, Burma (Myanmar), a landscape with wildlife corridors preserved alongside subsistence farming activities.

Among the many crises that keep unfolding around the world, the climate crisis is one of the main global concerns. Environmentalists, politicians, academics, international organizations, and activists advocate for various solutions to counter or mitigate the impacts of climate change. Among the proposed solutions are climate-smart agriculture, assisted by advanced technologies, and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), to be achieved by keeping forests standing in the developing world. Meanwhile, some people — in particular environmentalists and Indigenous rights activists — try to advocate for the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples over their lands and natural resources, including forests and wildlife.

Some people may be surprised and wonder how the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights worldwide might contribute to addressing the impacts of climate change. Personally, however, I found that many sustainable solutions reside precisely in the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, whose lives are interconnected with the natural resources they use, the wildlife they hunt and consume, and the environment they have relied on for their survival over generations. This means that the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights involves the recognition of their tenure rights and biocultural rights as these rights are not only crucial to their day-to-day survival but also essential to climate change solutions.

Preserving the traditional beliefs and cultural practices of the Karen, or those of other Indigenous Peoples, can contribute to solutions for the global climate crisis.

Here, I focus in particular on the traditional beliefs and cultural practices of the Karen Indigenous people of Burma (Myanmar) in relation to the environment and natural resources they depend on and show how preserving the traditional beliefs and cultural practices of the Karen in Burma’s Karen State, or those of other Indigenous Peoples in other parts of the world, can contribute to solutions for the global climate crisis.

As the Karen have a close relationship with the environment on which they rely for their survival, they have the right to consume natural resources for their day-to-day subsistence; they also must follow and abide by their traditional beliefs and cultural practices to preserve the environment, including natural resources and wildlife both on land and in the water.

Saw Tha Kay, a Karen Indigenous Expert sharing Indigenous Knowledge at a community meeting.

Among many traditional beliefs, the belief about not killing gibbons is central to Karen society as it is believed that the gibbon is partly human and partly wildlife due to its human-like physical features (hands and toes). According to one of our Elders, “Whenever a gibbon is killed, seven forests will suffer. For us Indigenous Karen people, gibbons are weather-forecasting animals that could alert us, for example, of the coming rainy reason by making the sound ‘hoo hoo.’ When the rainy season has arrived, they do not make any sounds. If they do start making sounds at the end of the rainy season, it signals the coming of summer.”

In Karen society, no one is allowed to kill gibbons because gibbons do not have many offspring per year. It is believed that those who kill a gibbon will suffer the fate of gibbons, which means that they will not have many children. This traditional belief does not only benefit gibbons. By preserving gibbons, people benefit too: if gibbons are present where people farm (the Karen practice rotational farming), they will protect people’s farms from other wildlife like monkeys, which would destroy the crops. According to our ancestors, gibbons can scare away other animals that would come and destroy farm crops by making sounds or chasing them off.

A gibbon in Yar Kay Koh village, Hpa-An district, eastern Karen State. Gibbons are traditionally protected by the Indigenous Karen community.

Similarly, as our Elders tell us, when a hornbill is killed, seven banyan trees will suffer. Those who killed a hornbill will suffer penance for seven generations (seven lives). As for the benefits of having hornbills, the hornbill, with its beautiful feathers, is believed to embody the spirit of the rice crop. Hornbills don’t eat the rice, and hunting them is strictly prohibited. Karen people also know that they should not kill hornbills because they do not have many offspring each time and they are faithful to each other. For these reasons, hornbills should not be killed.

As well, according to local Elders I met during my fieldwork, it is traditionally prohibited to kill woodpeckers because it is believed that they are “divine watchdogs.” In turn, woodpeckers benefit people by eating insects that destroy crops in their rotational farming.

When it comes to tigers, the Karen believe that a tiger is “the master of their land.” Once a year, a tiger will return to a mountain range where people farm. If people see the footsteps of a tiger, this implies that they will harvest high crop yields because a tiger, the master of their land, has come back to their land. It is also believed that a tiger is the most honest judge ever. For instance, if a couple in a village has committed premarital sex, a tiger will come to their homes and wander around. From this, other people in the village will know who did what.

A tiger captured by a trap camera during a 2012 survey in Kaydoh Mae Nyaw Wildlife Sanctuary. The Karen traditionally protect tigers.

Indigenous Karen people also have traditional beliefs when it comes to trees. It is traditionally forbidden to use certain types of trees, and if these trees are used it brings bad luck or problems to the user or the user’s family. For example, it is believed that Nya Mae (that is, a tree with dichotomous branching) is not appropriate for housing. Likewise, any trees with ant, bee, or wasp nests are not allowed for use.

Karen people are traditionally prohibited from cutting down a tree with beehives.

In addition, Karen people have cultural practices or traditional beliefs when it comes to watershed areas or water sources. During my fieldwork, one of the Elders told me that “it should not be allowed to clear or hunt in watershed areas. If you clear watershed areas, water will dry up. If you hunt in watershed areas, such as for crabs, fish, and shrimps, you will not get clear water, and water will also dry up or become unclean because crabs, fish, and shrimps in the watershed areas purify water; if they are there, water will be there and it will be clean.” It is said, however, not everyone today follows these cultural practices, so with climate change we now face impacts such as drought, pest infestation, and irregular rains.

Saw Moe Aung presenting the benefits of preserving wildlife from a scientific perspective.

Some people might say that their traditional beliefs and cultural practices are taboo subjects, but personally I think that there are so many things to learn from Karen traditional customs because each belief or cultural practice has a deep connection to nature. What I would like to suggest is that revitalizing and preserving the traditional customs of Karen Indigenous people is also a matter of fundamental human rights: specifically, the right to their religion and the right to their culture.

Revitalizing and preserving the traditional customs of Karen Indigenous people is also a matter of fundamental human rights.

Recognizing Karen people’s rights will not only have benefits for their livelihoods but will also have endless positive impacts on other major problems around the globe, in particular climate change. To those who might question how this might be the case, I say that this might happen for several reasons. For example, preserving gibbons, which is one of their biocultural rights, allows gibbons to thrive freely. If gibbons are free from poaching and wildlife traders, they can thrive and disperse a variety of seeds from the fruits they eat whenever they are out and about. If this traditional belief and cultural practice could be revitalized and preserved, it would help achieve diversity in our ecosystem. And that, in turn, might lead to a biocultural resurgence because people would realize what their rights and responsibilities are when it comes to the use of natural resources such as wildlife, trees, and a variety of other plants.

A group of community rangers setting up a camera trap during a survey training.

Preserving and revitalizing other traditional beliefs and cultural practices will also lead to a biocultural resurgence because the biocultural heritage of Karen Indigenous people, like that of Indigenous Peoples in other parts of the world, has been fading over the past years due to top-down development projects led by self-interested international organizations and relevant state and other stakeholders.

We would not have a life without wildlife — in fact, we perceive ourselves as wildlife.

For these reasons, it is a must to protect and recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples while preserving and revitalizing their traditional beliefs and cultural practices to achieve a biocultural resurgence. According to their beliefs and practices, the Karen and other Indigenous Peoples recognize that wildlife and their lives are interdependent and interconnected. We would not have a life without wildlife — in fact, we perceive ourselves as wildlife. Affirming our rights means affirming our responsibilities toward wildlife because we are wildlife; wildlife is us.

One of the participants in a community meeting looking at a T-shirt with the slogan “We are wildlife; wildlife is us,” written in the Karen language.

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Saw Moe Aung is an ethnic Karen from Burma (Myanmar) who currently works as a wildlife and biodiversity program coordinator at Karen Environmental and Social Action Network. Along with local leaders from Burma’s Karen State, he raises awareness about Karen Indigenous beliefs, faith, and cultural practices that need to be revitalized and preserved for sustainable natural resources management.