Despite recent pushes to combat the climate crisis, Indigenous communities still feel as if they've been left behind.

At the annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Indigenous world leaders raised concerns about western climate strategies, and how many still seem to disregard Native lands. The biggest issues brought forth by advocacy groups were mining projects, which activists say have usurped Indigenous land and rights.

Brian Mason, chairman of Nevada's Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian reservation, cited 70 lithium mining applications that came with no warning to the community, and no consent.

“It’s kinda just being rammed down our throats,” he said via The Guardian. “At the cost of Indigenous peoples once again.”

Mason described lithium mining as being on a “fast track," as the Biden Administration recently implemented measures to prioritize electric vehicles. Minerals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper are used in batteries, making them necessary for the production of both electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Mejía Montalvo of Colombia's Zenú peoples in San Andrés Sotavento noted that despite relying on Indigenous knowledge, global discussions on climate change have largely excluded Indigenous people. He continued to say that "the issue of climate change and biodiversity cannot be resolved without the real and effective participation of Indigenous peoples.”

Across the world, Indigenous populations have decried displacement over sustainability projects. Gunn-Britt Retter of the Saami Council, which represents the Sami people of Finland, Russia, Norway, and Sweden, called the trend "green colonialism."

Retter cited the recently constructed Fosen onshore windfarm as a prime example of the term — a project protested even by prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg. Despite a Norway supreme court ruling in favor of Sami communities, the farm was still constructed, and destroyed herding grounds for Sami reindeer.

“They look to us to carry the heaviest burden, and it’s a disproportionate part of the burden,” she said. “We need to reduce CO2 emissions globally, and we need to seek alternative energy sources, but we also need to protect the Indigenous cultures because we are the guardians of nature, which is part of the solution.”