Indigenous communities plead for action at plastic pollution talks

Aboriginal communities in North America are in talks on a global treatise on plastic pollution in Geneva, pleading the case for the environment on which they depend, which is slowly muffled by microplastics.

In the United Nations siege park, overlooking Lake Geneva and the Alps beyond, a song suddenly derived in summer wet air: a “Water song”.

Standing barefoot in a circle, six women and a young man from several North American Aboriginal communities decided to make a spontaneous purification ritual.

A second melancholic song follows, dedicated to well-being “until the seventh generation” of “all the delegates” of the 184 countries who try to discover what would be the first international treaty to fight against the scourge in the constant global evolution of plastic pollution.

The non-accommodated talks, which started last Tuesday, resumed on Monday for four more days, with oil producing states and the so-called group of ambitious nations still far from what the treaty should include.

The young man in the middle of the circle, wearing a hat with two feathers attached, maintains each of the six women a bowl containing burning seal fats and plant powders.

With both hands, Suzanne Smoke, treaties from Williams, First Nations in Ontario, Canada, moved as if to catch rising smoke, rubbing it on her face and body.

“ We have knowledge ”

PANGANGA PUNGOWIYI, an activist of the indigenous environmental network, was also in the circle. It comes from Alaska, near the Bering Strait.

It asks the negotiators to develop a plastic pollution treaty that guarantees justice, in particular for the most vulnerable communities, she told AFP.

“We have knowledge; this is our responsibility – our duty – to share the information given to us by ecosystems,” said Pungowiyi, explaining his presence during talks.

Alaska is affected by toxic chemicals, some of which come from plastic or oil exploration.

“Toxic products move to the north, through ocean currents and air currents,” she said.

Henri Bourgeois Costa, an expert in environmental and plastic pollution at the Tara Ocean Foundation, explained the difficult situation of Alaska.

“Given the functioning of the main cycles of the ecosystem, allasée populations are already the most affected by mercury pollution and PCB (polychlorine biphenyl) – industrial metals now prohibited in developed countries – even if Alaska does not use them,” he told AFP.

The currents, which have brought numerous nutrients and fish schools to residents of the northwest state of the United States, now also bring large quantities of microplastics, he said.

Car and salmon tires

A study in 2020 of the Washington State University demonstrated that a chemical additive used in the manufacture of car tires, 6ppd, had “deleterious effects on the reproduction of salmon,” said one of the most widespread fish in Alaska, said Bourgeois Costa.

A compound derived from 6 ppd – a preservative used to slow down tire degradation – comes out of rubber on the roads and enters the water cycle, showed the study.

“More fish – More seals: more food,” said Pungowiyi.

People can see the diseases suffered by birds and mammals in the surrounding environment, which end up affecting their own children, she said.

“We are exposed to food, water and fodder, because we feed for our food,” said Pungowiyi.

‘If the animals die, we die’

Aakaluk Adrienne Blatchford, an activist from a small village in Alaska, who came to Geneva talks with the financial support of an association, said: “If the animals die, we die.”

She spoke during a conference staged negotiations, which find it difficult to find a consensus that would prevent plastic pollution from growing.

“We are counting on unhealthy products,” said Blatchford, adding: “It becomes more and more difficult to maintain our food security.”

And “there is no alternative,” she added, with prices as high as “$ 76 for an imported frozen chicken” at the supermarket.

It is a trap for economically fragile populations living in “a symbiotic relationship with the world,” she said.

“We need a collective decision on how to manage this crisis,” she said, hoping that the treaty will include a list of prohibited chemical additives.

The plastic treaty talks take place in the UN Palace of Nations Complex.

During the ritual, held under a tree in the park outside, Blatchford stood with his eyes closed, tears rolling on his face.

© 2025 AFP