STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionLarge-scale developments and displacements of indigenous peoplesThe Bakun Dam in Malaysia is reported to have caused the forceddisplacement of 5,000-8,000 indigenous persons from 15 communities byclear-cutting 80,000 hectares of rainforest. Indigenous peoples in Manipur,India, were reported to have suffered a similar fate caused by the buildingof 25 hydroelectric dams. Thousands of families of the Santhal Adivasipeople in Jharkhand province of India have reportedly been displacedas a result of extraction of minerals, without proper compensation oreconomic security. In Thailand, several highland communities, includingthe Karen people, have reportedly been moved out of national parksagainst their will, while tourist development in Hawaii has resulted in thedisplacement of indigenous people and their increasing poverty.Asian indigenous representatives informed the Working Group onIndigenous Populations (WGIP) at its eighteenth session in 2000 that“conflict and development interventions had resulted in large-scaledisplacements, internal and external, and serious consequences for[indigenous] children and youth resulting from the implementation ofinappropriate and non-consultative development projects”.economic policies,promoted byinternational agenciesand triggered by freetradeagreements andglobalization, ave resultedin a proliferation oflarge-scale developmentprojects on indigenouslands and territoriesSource: Stavenhagen (2003), Para. 22The forest issueThe example of indigenous forest-dwellers is illustrative. For many indigenouspeoples, the forest plays an essential part in ensuring their physical, cultural,spiritual and economic well-being by giving them access to secure means ofsubsistence, medicinal plants and the ability to practice their customs. However,all this is in severe jeopardy as their forest refuge is increasingly being degraded,destroyed or placed off-limits.Logging is the most prominent cause of deforestation, but agri-business, largescaleinfrastructure projects such as hydroelectric dams and gas and oil pipelines,oil exploration and mining operations are also taking their toll.Oil palm plantations in IndonesiaIndonesia is experiencing the biggest rate of increase in terms of forestsconverted into oil palm plantations. In a period of 30 years (1967-1997) oilpalm plantations have increased 20 times with 12 per cent average annualincreases in crude palm oil (CPO) production. From 106,000 hectares in1960 this has increased to 6 million hectares, although there were around18 million hectares of forests cleared purportedly for oil palm in 2006. ItTHE ENVIRONMENT | 89
EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionappears that loggers used oil palm plantations as a justification to harvest the timber. The governmentannounced new plans under the Kalimantan Border Oil Palm Mega-Project (April 2006) to convert anadditional 3 million hectares in Borneo, of which 2 million will be on the border between Kalimantan andMalaysia. It is understood that the area deemed suitable for oil palm includes forests used by thousandsof people who depend on them for their livelihoods.Source: Tauli-Corpuz and Tamang (2007), Para. 20.According to latest estimates, the net forest loss over the period 2000-2005 was 7.5 million ha of forest per year. 17In order to counter this development and save the last large forest systems, efforts have been made over the pastfew decades to establish national parks, game reserves and other forms of protected areas.But whether logging, large-scale development schemes or conservation are being considered, indigenouspeoples have, for the most part, paid a high price. As the plants and wildlife disappear along with the trees, thesubsistence base of forest-dwellers disappears too, and forces them to abandon their traditional ways of life basedon hunting and gathering. The same happens when their forests are turned into protected areas and they are nolonger allowed to reside there or gain access to the forest’s natural resources. Whether evicted, involuntarilydisplaced or forced to find their subsistence elsewhere, these indigenous peoples become landless squattersliving on the fringes of settled society. They receive no compensation or other reparation for their losses, and inorder to survive, they are forced to farm the lands of others in arrangements that are often functionally equivalentto bonded labour. Many of them eventually end up in urban slums.The case of the Twa “Pygmies” of Democratic Republic of CongoThe expulsion of the Twa from the Kahuzi-Biega forest (later to become a gorilla reserve) has deprivedthem of their sources of meat, honey and wild tubers from the forest. Their traditional relationships withnon-Twa farmers, which involved exchanges of meat, honey, medicines, etc., were disrupted. They canno longer obtain the plants that used to serve them as medicine for curing illnesses…. Most of theirreligious activities and rites, for example the initiation of males, which can be performed only in theforest, have become impossible because of their new environment. For the Twa, nothing can substitute orcompensate for the loss of the forest, as no other environment can provide them with the same spiritualand material benefits.Source: Barume (2000), 81.The experience of most indigenous peoples is that national forest policies and legislation have generallybeen designed without, or with very little, input and involvement from them. Very few countries have includedconsiderations regarding forest-related traditional knowledge in their forest policies. There are critical problemsof an overlap of logging concessions with traditional territories, as well as problems of illegal logging on indigenouspeoples’ lands. 18 In other instances, indigenous peoples have been arrested and jailed for carrying out customaryactivities on lands that were declared conservation forest. 1917Tauli-Corpuz and Tamang (2007), para.20.18Working Group on Article 8J (2007g),15.19Working Group on Article 8J (2007c), 37.90 | CHAPTER III
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STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

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