Phil Fontaine, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will tell a United Nations committee today that the government needs to engage natives more on climate change.

"We're witnessing dramatic changes in the environment," he told Canada AM on Monday.

The Arctic has received a great deal of attention over the changes occurring there due to a climate changing as a result of global warming, but Fontaine said his group is particularly concerned about the boreal forest, which stretches across the north from Yukon Territory to Newfoundland and Labrador.

"When we talk about the boreal forest, we're talking about indigenous peoples, because the vast majority of our people live in the boreal forest region," Fontaine said.

Worldwide, the boreal forest covers about 15 per cent of the Earth's land surface, according to the Woods Hole Research Centre.

The boreal forest is one of the world's most important carbon traps, storing it in the soil and vegetation, particularly peat.

"Over the past 30 years, global boreal forests have experienced a significant amount of warming and drying which, if trends continue as predicted, are likely to induce feedbacks that may further influence global climate," the group said on its website.

In last year's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on the impact of a changing climate, scientists said that the amount of forest lost to fire went from an average of 6,500 square kilometres per year in the 1960s to 29,700 sq. km. in the 1990s.

On aboriginal people and climate change, the report noted, "Among the most climate-sensitive North American communities are those of indigenous populations dependent on one or a few natural resources.

"Many indigenous communities in northern Canada and Alaska are already experiencing constraints on lifestyles and economic activity from less reliable sea and lake ice (for travelling, hunting, fishing and whaling), loss of forest resources from insect damage, stress on caribou, and more exposed coastal infrastructure from diminishing sea ice."

In Alaska, the report noted some areas have benefited from rising salmon stocks.

Fontaine said he will make the point to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that "we want to be front and centre in this important undertaking."

He is expected to urge stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets and talk about social and economic development.

Olympics

On Thursday, Fontaine said natives would use the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to focus government attention on native poverty.

"We'll take whatever opportunity is presented to us to state our case, to set the record straight, to tell Canadians the true story about our situation. They have to stand up and demand immediate action on the part of their government to fix this," he said.

Fontaine drew comparisons between the situation in Tibet, where protests have sprung up against the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch run in support of the Tibetan cause, and that of natives in Canada.

However, he told Canada AM that "we've already, in a formal way, expressed support for the 2010 Olympics."