Commercial agriculture, mining and urbanization for energy infrastructure, crops and fuel are putting enormous pressure on indigenous peoples and their lands around the world, according to new research published today.
Soaring demand for Earth’s raw materials is driving human activity deeper into ecologically intact areas, researchers have found. Up to 60% of Aboriginal lands are currently threatened.
The study, led by scientists at the global conservation nonprofit The Nature Conservancy (TNC), is published in the journal an earth.
Pollutants
Using global data and spatial maps, it shows that nearly 60 percent of indigenous lands in 64 countries and all inhabited continents are threatened by industrial development – equivalent to 22.7 million square kilometers.
Renewable energy is the main driver of development pressure, especially in Australia, parts of China, Central Africa, Argentina, the United States and Pakistan. It affects 42% of indigenous peoples’ land, mostly from solar energy (81%), with 13% at risk from wind and 1% from hydropower.
Oil and gas drive 18% of industrial development, especially in Russia, Norway, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and New Zealand; meanwhile, commercial agriculture of crops and biofuels to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Nepal 14% of the land in 14 countries is under pressure.
Mining of coal, metal and non-metal resources poses risks to 9 per cent of indigenous peoples’ lands, concentrated in some 12 countries including Peru, Sweden, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
The expansion of such projects can lead to massive deforestation and toxic pollutants; infectious diseases and rural violence, the researchers note. Urbanization is the main threat to 4 percent of indigenous peoples’ land globally, the study finds.
right
Although indigenous peoples make up only 6.2 percent of the global population, they formally or customarily rule at least a quarter of the world’s landmass.
The vast majority (approximately 92 percent, or 35.4 million square kilometers) of the land remains in good to moderate condition due to intensive care by indigenous peoples. As a result, indigenous peoples’ lands comprise 39 percent of the most ecologically intact land on Earth.
Scientists, as well as environmental and human rights activists, believe that recognizing and asserting the rights of indigenous peoples is at the heart of efforts to protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change. These rights are therefore included in the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Canada last December.
However, Indigenous peoples faced with development proposals face significant challenges, including weak rights to territories and resources; insufficient representation and participation in decision-making, and lack of funding to support conservation, the researchers found.
