Limited room For manoeuvre - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 265

large-scale destruction of natural resources. Below we briefly describe the role
of extractive industries. The types of situations we describe have been a primary
focus of the global indigenous rights movement. Rights-based approaches
have been fully outlined in international indigenous rights mechanisms, most
clearly in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP; United Nations 2007) and the International Labour Organization
(ILO) Convention 169 on the international rights of indigenous and tribal
peoples (ILO 1989). Particularly relevant is the principle of free, prior and informed
consent (FPIC). Article 32 of UNDRIP states that FPIC must be obtained 'prior to
the approval of any project affecting their land or territories and other resources,
particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of
mineral, water or other resources' (United Nations 2007). Below we briefly
highlight some of the most relevant aspects of indigenous rights as they relate to
the arguments in this chapter.
Extractive industries and development as usual
Extractive industries exert increasing pressure on indigenous peoples' livelihoods,
access to assets and available options to react and adapt. Unprecedented growth in
countries like China, India and Brazil, and the wish of governments to decrease
dependence on energy sources from unstable regions (Asif and Muneer 2007)
has increased the hunt for the resources required to fuel productive industries
and for land for agro-industries to produce meat and biofuels for the growing
middle classes (Dauvergne and Neville 2010). The search for and exploitation
of oil, gases, coal, copper, rare earth minerals, timber, biofuel crops and pasture
lands has increased the presence of powerful actors, and the attention of
governments and international agencies in even the most remote areas of the
world.
For governments and national actors, the extraction of these resources may
be seen as a source necessary for funding social programmes (as in Andean
and Amazonian countries), and bringing prosperity. However, as documented
by numerous authors (see Bourgouin 2011:525; Bebbington 2012) extractive
industries (especially mining, hydrocarbon and timber) have generally not lived
up to the expectations of increased prosperity, poverty reduction and growth
through long-term investments in socio-economic development. Quite the
contrary: the direct impact on lands and territories, the tendency of extractive
industries to bypass human rights concerns, and the impact on livelihoods (as
through contamination of water and soil) have had serious negative impacts
on peoples dependent on natural resources. In the Andean region, large parts
of lands designated as protected areas and as indigenous territories have been
identified as having the potential for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction,
and concessions have been negotiated with private and state-owned extractive
industries (Humpreys-Bebbington 2012). Several of these sub-soil resource-
rich areas coincide with mega-biodiversity hotspots (Finley-Brook 2007;