Some are even the victims of efforts to tackle global warming such as clearing tracts of land and forest for growing biofuels, which deprives local people of their livelihoods, according to "State of the World’s Minorities 2008" report from Minority Rights Group International (MRG).
Minority groups often live in areas rejected by the wealthy because of their riskier location, the report says, noting similar difficulties faced by the Dalits of India, the Roma of Slovakia, the Rama of Nicaragua and the Inuit of the Arctic.
"Climate change has finally made it to the top of the international agenda at every level but…recognition of the acute difficulties that minorities face is often missing," Reuters quoted MRG’s policy chief, Ishbel Matheson, as saying.
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