The indigenous student of the Law Course at the State University of Feira de Santana (Uefs), Açucena Marinheiro da Silva, was selected to participate in three Conferences promoted by the United Nations (UN) to discuss the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The selection was made by LAYCS – Latin American Youth Climate Scholarships, a project that aims to grant ”climate scholarships”, aiming to promote the participation of Latin American, black and indigenous youth in international forums where climate change will be discussed .
Asked about how she feels about this selection, Açucena says she is very excited and feels a great responsibility, as she was one of two Brazilian indigenous people selected in the face of an average of 5,700 applications, and that she will take this opportunity to learn and defend the its people, as climate change directly affects indigenous peoples. She also says that she will take the identity of the Tumbalalá people there. ”Whenever an opportunity appears in my life, I usually tell myself that it was the enchanted ones who gave it to me and that’s why I have it in me that I won’t go alone, I will go with my ancestry and with my people”.
Coordinator of the Law course and professor of International Law, Márcia Misi celebrates the selection of the student from a universe of thousands of applications throughout Brazil, and states that Açucena’s participation in these conferences, in addition to promoting international visibility to her struggles people, brings our course closer to international forums where debates are held on issues that affect all of humanity. She believes that, upon her return, Açucena will have much to share with our academic community.
The main objective of the project is to promote the sharing of knowledge and training for effective participation and the construction of Resilient Networks so that selected young people can effectively participate in the three climate conferences. The first participation will be in the SB58 Conference (58 edition of Subsidiary Groups) of the UNFCCC, which will take place in Bonn (Germany), from the 5th to the 15th of June. Then there will be the participation in the COY (Youth Conference) and COP28 (Conference of the Parties) that will take place between the end of November and the beginning of December in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai.
The selection process took place in two stages. The first stage consisted of a written test that aimed to verify the candidate’s link with climate issues. Student Açucena Mariano reveals that she sought to demonstrate ” how the lack of demarcation of indigenous lands influences the environmental and cultural impacts ”.
The second stage consisted of an interview with questions related to the environment. At this stage, Açucena reveals that he was inspired by the meeting he had a few days earlier in Brasília with the leaders of his village. Thus, he states ”I soon thought that nothing could be fairer than relating the answers to territorial issues, specifically of the Tumbalalá people (my people) who are located in the north of Bahia, on the banks of the São Francisco River and whose biome is caatinga, a unique biome in Brazil that is not considered national heritage. Thus, I sought to report the environmental impacts and their repercussions on the indigenous identity of the Tumbalalá people”.
