Indigenous peoples are adversely impacted by climate change as they are solely reliant on the forest resources for their livelihood; ranging from food, shelter and income generation. Majority of the 3.5 million population of Liberia live in the interior part of the country which is densely covered by forest resource (LIGIS 2008). There is inadequate/lack of basic social services such as; access to education, health facilities, justice, job facilities etc. These people are yet to be heard on most local matters that affect their lives referenced growth and development.
It interests us to institute two dialogues in the northwest and southeast to capture the views and concerns of indigenous peoples in Liberia, thus staging their participation in global decision-making at COP21. We think that this will provide the necessary answers to some of their problems.
Indigenous people are those who live around the fringes of the forest.

This project ?IP-Government dialogues for Climate COP 21? will bring together people from the 15 counties of Liberia and will response to issues of climate change in Liberia. The indigenous people of Liberia will be placed into two (2) regions ? Southeast and Northwest.
The Southeast region will comprise of people from Maryland, Sinoe, River Gee, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Grand Bassa and Rivercess Counties; while the Northwest region will consist of Nimba, Bong, Lofa, Margibi, Monsterrado, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, and Gbarpolu Counties. There will be three (3) dialogues (two regional dialogues and a National dialogue). The dialogue for the Southeastern region will be held in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County while the one for the Northwestern region will be in Kakata, Margibi County. The National dialogue for both regions will be followed in Gbarnga, Bong County.
The project team will work along with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the National Traditional Council (NTC) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of Liberia, we will select IPs who reside in the county and represent the view of majority of the people in that area. The MIA, NTC and CSOs will help us to identify the right person to represent the IP from each county.
At least two (2) representatives IPs will be selected from each county. In the selection process, women, youth and grassroots representatives will highly be considered. For transparency, a list containing applicants will be screened before the final selection. The long term goal of this project is to reduce the level of major factors contributing to globe climate change and to raise the level of awareness of climate change effect already experiencing in Liberia. The dialogues will consist of presentations by local experts on climate change and mitigation, and adaptation measures in forestry, agriculture and other Land use. The main aim of the consultation is to incorporate the views and aspirations of IPs in to national agenda, noting they are the forest dwellers who have vast and most useful knowledge of their cohabitation with the forests.