Indigenous rights: 4 things all development workers should know

From the Karen hill tribes in Thailand to the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania, there are over 5,000 Indigenous groups all over the world, entirely distinct from one another and comprising 6.2% of the global population. Often marginalized from broader society, they face challenges around land rights and access to legal paperwork that would grant them an education or health care while climate change is ravaging the land their lives are so deeply connected with, jeopardizing their resources and homes. This means that Indigenous groups are often a target demographic of development assistance, but given the historical subjugation of and disregard for Indigenous peoples, the way in which the development community interacts with them must be nuanced, said experts. “What we need from NGOs, philanthropic and donor actors is for everybody to remember and recognize all the historical depths of the colonial world because we live in a neocolonial world and, with Indigenous people, all these historical depths still are alive,” said Angela Martínez, director of the Amazon Defenders Fund. She added that today, as in decades prior, people still seek to exploit the bodies, knowledge, and territories of Indigenous peoples. In order to ensure the development sector doesn’t exacerbate that, experts told Devex that all practitioners should have a level of knowledge around these groups, regardless of the sector of development in which one works. 1. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately impacted by climate change yet critical to the fight. Reliant as it is on ancestral land, which links to spiritual beliefs, language, and culture, the way of life valued by Indigenous groups is directly threatened by climate change, explained Eirik Larsen, head of the human rights unit at Saami Council, an NGO representing Indigenous Saami people from across Finland, Russia, Norway, and Sweden. According to the World Resources Institute, Indigenous communities are being displaced by climate change seven times faster than other communities. But at the same time, as governments pivot into action, it can come at the expense of Indigenous lands — compounding the challenges communities living there face, explained Larsen. “We are affected by climate change, but at the same time, are asked to give up our land to mining green energy projects in order to mitigate climate change,” he explained. “It’s a double punishment and is why we use the term ‘green colonialism.’” For example, in Canada, Paiute lands are reportedly being targeted for lithium mining. As the demand for minerals and renewable energy increases — as does the urgency of reaching targets like designating 30% of the earth for preservation by 2030 — Indigenous groups are facing “more pressure than ever before,” said Larsen. Yet oftentimes, Indigenous communities’ role is crucial to the protection of the environment. According to the World Bank, Indigenous communities manage at least 25% of the world’s surface area, and research shows that land under their protection contains 80% of the world's biodiversity. “If you look at the Amazon region, or if you look at the Chittagong Hills Tracts [in Bangladesh], for example … it's like a biosphere, and it has been evolving due to the Indigenous peoples that are there,” said Helena Nyberg, a human rights expert with Incomindios, which campaigns for the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. “The worst thing you can do is to relocate these people from there.” Such is their active role in protecting their lands from the likes of logging and mining that more than a third of human rights defenders killed are Indigenous “because they fight for their territory,” said Nyberg. 2. Indigenous communities don’t need rescuing. Despite being disproportionately impacted by climate change and subject to discrimination, development workers shouldn’t enter into conversations with Indigenous communities believing they are in need of deliverance, said Martínez. “The white savior complex is very common,” she shared, explaining that many such communities have had experiences with development work “that causes harm, that is unjust, that is violent, and is reproduced with those other little subtle behaviors and stereotypes for Indigenous People,” said Martínez. “Indigenous people say sometimes [donors and development workers] believe they own us.” Not only are Indigenous groups entitled to make decisions about what happens on their own lands and within their communities; they often have more knowledge about the land and expertise in stewarding the environment. If planning to work with such communities on a project, Martínez suggested development professionals recognize that there is a debt to these communities and harms that need to be acknowledged. “Be humble and understand and respect their self-determination, their right to say no, their right to receive information on processes or projects that are taking place in their communities, to understand the ways of life they have.” This is known as free, prior, and informed consent, or FPIC. 3. Understanding FPIC is critical “If you want to do a development intervention in some area, irrespective of what thematic purpose that intervention has, then it's important to do an analysis and overview mapping [asking] are there Indigenous communities in these areas,” said Marianne Wiben Jensen, senior adviser for land rights in Africa at the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. This is especially important in Africa and Asia, where some governments don’t recognize their Indigenous persons, she added. Once their presence has been established, these communities have to be consulted in line with the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which stipulates that such groups be informed about any development projects pertaining to their land, that they cannot be forcibly removed from it, and that they have the right to self-determination, “which means that if you do development activities in their lands and territories, then they have an international right to be the prime decision-makers,” said Wiben Jensen. “It has to be done in a way where the Indigenous communities get the information about the planned project in good time, in advance, in a language which they understand, and that they are given sufficient time to consider it,” she shared, explaining that this is all a part of FPIC. All interviewees stressed the importance of FPIC when engaging with Indigenous groups on any work. “Indigenous peoples are very often blamed and said to be against progress,” said Nyberg. “It's not that they’re against projects or progress. They just want to be included.” 4. Tap into (but don’t exploit) Indigenous knowledge Over the years, many development agencies have begun incorporating Indigenous knowledge into their programming as a means of preparing for disasters or mitigating climate change. For example, in the Pacific islands, the Food and Agriculture Organization promotes traditional food preservation techniques, such as burying breadfruit to dig up in times of disaster-induced food shortages, and in the Amazon, U.N. agencies are promoting agroforestry and forest governance derived from Indigenous communities. As more people embrace and appreciate the wisdom of ancient practices that preserve the land and its resources, development workers have to be careful about how they work with that information, said Martínez. She cited examples in the past where academics have extracted knowledge from communities only to package “the stolen wisdom” as their own. In February, Indigenous leaders came together in Rome at the Indigenous People’s Forum, hosted by the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, and finalized a set of recommendations advising governments, IFAD, and Indigenous communities on how to work together. They include supporting indigenous seed banks, agroforestry, preservation of traditional crops, livestock breeds, and community-led biodiversity conservation efforts, directly funding Indigenous peoples, and ensuring the participation of Indigenous peoples in the design of programs.