Indigenous People and Natural Resources
Author: Maggie Hayden
Indigenous people
account for around 5% of the world’s population and speak more than 4,000
languages across the world. Every day, Indigenous people in tribes across the
world are faced with many difficulties regarding natural resources and their
land. The earth’s biodiversity is contained in 80% of land held by Indigenous
people throughout the world. As much as 11% of the forests of the world in
these territories hold tons of sequestered carbon that is not being released
into the atmosphere. For many Indigenous tribes, the environment and the earth
around them has been part of their history for centuries and is seen as spiritual
in many senses and holds the fundamentals for their beliefs and traditions. According
to the World Wildlife Fund, 95% of the top 200 areas with the most endangered
biodiversity are from Indigenous territories.
Many of these Indigenous
people are put into danger every day for just living their lives.
Oil, mining, and
logging industries are putting hardships on the land and the community that it
is sacred to. These processes can threaten and affect important spiritual and
cultural sites. For example, one problem Indigenous communities face is endemic
poverty, or the long-term poverty of a region that extends over generations. Another
example is in Canada. An area the size of Florida is covering tar sands, or a
mixture of sand, clay, and crude oil. In order to remove this, all of the
habitat as well as trees are extracted. Another part of this is the toxic waste
has been flowing into nearby rivers and contaminating the groundwater. This is
causing the population to get rare cancers as well as affecting the fish and
producing abnormalities. This includes
native and sacred land for Indigenous people. An oil company could just ask the
community to relocate to a safer or more remote place, yet they do not realize
the land is sacred to the people that live there and has been sacred for
centuries. Treaties can be signed but sometimes it is not enough and they are
broken.
On the other hand, extractive
industries also need to make money. In Australia, 60% of mines are within range
of Indigenous communities in order to help them grow as well as continue to be
an efficient company. Studies show employment of Indigenous men and women in
these mining communities have risen and are higher than non-mining areas. Many
mining companies bring good things for Indigenous communities. They help
provide education, employment, a capacity to run a business, and support for
social programs such as health and maintaining the culture.
The future of the Indigenous people
and extractive industries can be hazy at times. Cultural relativism is not
practiced hard enough in the world. Indigenous people’s lands are being taken
away from them or destroyed from the extraction of natural resources. A person
or community should be considered before things are done. There are some
positive things happening for these communities. There are hardships for the
community as well as job opportunities. There are losses of sacred land as well
as better education. There is poverty in some regions as well as economic
growth in others. I am positive and optimistic the relationship between
Indigenous people and the problem with natural resource extraction will be
better in the future as we progress towards more efficient ways of gaining
energy for the world. Decision making will be done as a team and respect will
be given to the people that deserve it. I believe the next generations to come
are more thoughtful towards other cultures and communities and believe in doing
the right thing for others. I have hope for a better future for these
communities as well as more preservation of land and culture.
Sources:
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/issues
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/mining-indigenous-rights-emergence-global-social-movement
http://www.ienearth.org/what-we-do/tar-sands/
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