First victims, last voices?

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Welcome to Green Jobs Rising!

Mitigating climate change is not only about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which remains our greatest goal, but also about protecting communities that maintain distinct traditions, spiritual beliefs, governance systems, and deep relationships with the land and nature.

Today, we journey to Chad, a country in Central Africa, to spotlight a visionary at the frontline of environmental activism: Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim.

Hindou is a Chadian environmental activist and geographer, and the Coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). She also served as co-director of the World Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative and Pavilion at COP21, COP22, and COP23.

Her work brings together indigenous knowledge and modern science to solve some of the region’s most pressing climate challenges.

Growing up between the city of N’Djamena and her community’s traditional lands, she witnessed the devastating effects of climate change on the Mbororo, a nomadic pastoralist group whose survival depends entirely on healthy ecosystems.

Nowhere is that threat more visible than in Lake Chad, which has shrunk to just 10% of its size since the 1960s. As the lake disappears, so do livelihoods, sparking displacement and deepening poverty.

In collaboration with UNESCO and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), Ibrahim co-led a 3D mapping project of Chad’s Sahel region. The innovation lay in combining modern mapping technology with indigenous environmental knowledge passed down through generations.

Women mapped areas where they gather food and medicine. Elders contributed insights on reading the sky, tracking animal migrations, and observing cattle behaviour to predict weather changes. This grassroots science supported community-led planning for adaptation and mitigation and enabled sustainable land management.

In a testimony to the International Organisation for Migration, Ms. Ibrahim described her people and other indigenous communities as “direct victims of climate change.” Climate impacts have displaced many, forcing them to abandon ancestral lands in search of areas that can sustain their way of life. These migrations often leave communities even more vulnerable.

In 2016, she represented civil society at the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, where she reminded global leaders:

“Climate change is adding poverty to poverty every day, forcing many to leave home for a better future.”

At the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference, she joined a panel with Arnold Schwarzenegger, challenging popular climate narratives. While individual action matters, she emphasised that systemic change is vital, especially for communities that suffer the most yet contribute the least to global emissions.