Many small island, rural and indigenous communities are already facing the first impacts of climate change. Their high vulnerability relates to their reliance upon resource-based livelihoods and the locations and configurations of their lands and territories.

Ironically, despite broad recognition that small island, Arctic, high altitude and other vulnerable communities are on the frontlines of climate change, their voices have remained largely on the sidelines of climate change debates. Indeed, this exclusion has generated discord and protests by indigenous peoples and community representatives at recent international conferences and meetings on climate change.

In response to this outcry, the grassroots Internet forum On the Frontlines of Climate Change was launched by UNESCO, in partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue (SPFII) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR).

The goals of the Frontlines forum are to:

• Draw international attention to the knowledge and experiences of indigenous communities and peoples living in small islands, the Arctic and other vulnerable environments;
• Seek community-level observations on climate change impacts, as well as local efforts to cope with and adapt to these changes;
• Provide an opportunity for communities to voice their observations, experiences and concerns, and to share and exchange them with other communities;
• Build up a global database of local observations, experiences, practices and coping strategies;
• Support community-based research and educational activities related to climate change;
• Heighten the profile and impact of indigenous peoples and their knowledge in international climate change debates.

We look forward to your continuing interest and active participation in the Climate Frontlines forum. We welcome questions and suggestions to improve the forum's relevance and outreach. Please send to:
peoples@climatefrontlines.org

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How to join the Forum:

You can join the Forum in two ways:

1. Email us at: peoples@climatefrontlines.org

2. Subscribe on this website by entering your email address into the box 'Join the Forum' on the top right hand corner of your screen.

How to contribute to the discussion:

Send your inputs and comments to: peoples@climatefrontlines.org

How the Forum works:

The Frontlines Forum is a 'moderated' forum.

Each cycle of the Forum discussions focuses upon a specific topic relevant to climate change.

1. A lead article is sent out by email to the Forum mailing list and is simultaneously posted on the home page of the Forum website.

2. Participants are invited to submit observations, comments and other inputs by return email or by emailing peoples@climatefrontlines.org

3. After a few weeks, highlights of participants’ responses are compiled into an article by the moderator. This 'Highlights of Responses' article is sent out by email to the Forum mailing list and are simultaneously posted on the website homepage.

4. Responses from participants continue to be compiled, posted and emailed every few weeks until the topic under discussion approaches completion.

5. At the close of a discussion topic, all responses submitted during this discussion are made available on the Forum website. You can find this by following the last link (labelled 'View all responses') of the discussion topic menu on the right-hand side of the page.

6. A new topic is then launched and the cycle begins again from step 1 above.

The Forum is run in English, French and Spanish, with the possibility for additional languages to be added if necessary resources become available.

Sharing of information:

The goal of the Frontlines Forum is to promote the open sharing and exchange of observations, experiences and innovations among indigenous and local communities, as well as with the general public. To this end, all contributions submitted to the Forum will be posted on the Forum website. They will therefore be accessible via the Forum website to all contributors and participants, as well as the general public.

Participants are encouraged to provide inputs that can be shared widely.

These inputs may be compiled into a database of local experiences with climate change impacts and adaptations strategies.