Economic Development, Environmentalism and Indigenous People

Answer

Question: Examine how economic development and environmentalism can be vehicles for external regulation that threaten the subsistence patterns and way of life of indigenous people.

Economic Development, Environmentalism and Indigenous People

Indigenous people make significant contributions to global cultural diversity. There are more than 370 million indigenous people who occupy 20% of the earths surface. In total, they represent 5,000 unique indigenous cultures. This implies that as much the indigenous people represent the minority groups, they make the highest contribution to cultural diversity. In spite of this, government regulations targeting environmentalism and economic development have threatened these cultures and the subsistence patterns of the indigenous people (Kottak, 2018). It is upon this understanding that this paper critically examines how environmentalism and economic development can be vehicles for external regulation that threatens the subsistence patterns and way of life of the indigenous people.

Economic Development, Environmentalism and Indigenous People

The needs of the indigenous groups have been overlooked by most of the national governments. Through international organizations such as Indigenous Environmental Network, there has been renewed efforts to analyze the impacts of different policies and regulations on their ways of life. According to Mowforth (2014), these organizations advocate for favorable rights that preserve the cultural diversity of the indigenous groups. However, most of the rights are only on paper. This is the case with the Central American government such as Honduras which has failed to meet its legal obligations to the indigenous groups. They have violated their communal land rights by introducing laws favoring individual ownership. This undermines basic principles held by the indigenous people such as owning communal properties within the indigenous territories. This implies that legal recognition of the indigenous groups does not translate to protection of their territories, resources, rights and cultures.

Organizations motivated by profits often encroach and destroy communal land and resources belonging to the indigenous groups. This includes cattle ranching companies, loggers and government corporations which illegally acquire licenses to use indigenous resources for their economic gains. The exploitation of indigenous resources was exacerbated by the global financial crisis which triggered a struggle for natural resources. This is because most of the natural capital, namely, minerals, gas, oil, and timber lie beneath and on the ands occupied by the indigenous people (Kottak, 2018). This trend is common in the Amazon, Nigeria, Canada, Russia, Cambodia, Mongolia and the Philippines. To explore these resources, the indigenous groups are forced out of their indigenous territories. Some are displaced while others are evicted, while some are forced to relocate as a result of corporate violence. Such instances threaten the subsistence patterns and ways of life of the indigenous people.

There is also the issue of conservation of the environment and indigenous groups. It is a coincidence that the areas occupied by the indigenous people hold crucial resources that require conservation. For instance, more than 85% of the indigenous territory in Central America is marked as protected land. Environmentalists emphasize that these areas are preserved. As much as the subsistence lifestyle of the indigenous groups have insignificant impact on the environment, the emphasis on conservation curtails their ability to explore new subsistence systems. At times, the indigenous people collaborate with conservation organizations aiming to conserve biodiversity. Nonetheless, Mowforth (2014) notes that in most cases, the agendas of the environmentalists and the indigenous groups is irreconcilable. For instance, the indigenous people are concerned about preserving their land for their economic well-being while the environmentalists force them to keep the environment intact for biodiversity reasons. By neglecting the economic needs of the indigenous people, the environmentalists threaten the way of life of the indigenous groups.

In conclusion, this paper affirms that agendas and regulations on economic development and environmentalism have a direct impact on the subsistence way of life of the indigenous communities. For instance, encroachment of the indigenous territory by private investors and governments damage the environment thus reducing its economic value to the indigenous people. Additionally, the government could evict them from their cradle lands. On the other hand, the environmentalists force them conserve natural resources even when they exploit them for their economic and social wellbeing.