Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States are gathering today in Hokkaido, Japan for the start of the G8 Summit. Protests have been occurring for days in the lead-up to the Summit. Leaders of indigenous communities have urged wealthy nations to include indigenous people in discussions as they deal with climate change.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: “We have contributed the least to climate change, but we are carrying the heavy burden of solving the climate change problem, and so we would like them to ensure that we are included in the negotiations of the climate change convention so that we can contribute more substantially in shaping solutions.”

On Sunday, the South African-based Global Call to Action Against Poverty held a demonstration in Sapporo. Kumi Naidoo urged the G8 nations to help the world’s poorest people.

Kumi Naidoo: “The reality is, in Africa, every single day 6,000 people die from HIV/AIDS alone, another 7,000 people die from malaria, another 2,000-3,000 die from tuberculosis. If those numbers of deaths were happening in Europe or North America, we are convinced the G8 would long time ago have found the money to address these issues. So we want to see the same kind of urgency.”