Indigenous Lands at Risk: Identifying Global Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Industrial Development

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples’ (IP) stewardship has helped conserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems worldwide. Among many challenges to this role are mounting pressures from industrial development. By assessing the current ecological condition of Indigenous lands with their potential for future industrial development, we show that the ecological integrity of 22% (8.6 million km2) of Indigenous lands is highly threatened across five continents and 37 countries. We further find that the risk to Indigenous lands is greatest across West and Central Africa because of their high ecological threat and greater obstacles for Indigenous Peoples to realize self-determined and culturally-responsive development outcomes. Using a novel national-level framework that examines the security of IP’ rights and authority over their lands, their capacity to engage in decision-making, and support for facilitating sustainable development, we highlight potential challenges and opportunities for strategic investments and interventions to help IP safeguard their futures and rights, as well as the ecological integrity of their lands.

Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples

“…Developing ETM projects to mitigate the effects of historical industrialization will paradoxically involve encroaching on landscapes with high levels of ecological and cultural integrity and traditional forms of land tenure and ownership [20][21][22] . Approving and permitting the development and expansion of these projects will test the protections available to Indigenous and other land-connected peoples and the lands and territories over which they hold collective rights and entitlements.…”

The Road to India’s Renewable Energy Transition Must Pass through Crowded Lands

“…Uncoordinated external development could put local livelihoods at risk and jeopardize investments in renewable energy. Recent analysis suggest that renewable energy represents the biggest threat for future land conversion to the lands of Indigenous people globally, whose rights are ostensibly protected by the United Nations [43]. An estimated 42% of Indigenous land (3.6 million km 2 ) is under high development pressure from renewable energy, driven in large part by solar (81%) and to a lesser degree, by wind (13%) [43].…”

“…Recent analysis suggest that renewable energy represents the biggest threat for future land conversion to the lands of Indigenous people globally, whose rights are ostensibly protected by the United Nations [43]. An estimated 42% of Indigenous land (3.6 million km 2 ) is under high development pressure from renewable energy, driven in large part by solar (81%) and to a lesser degree, by wind (13%) [43]. A history of exclusion from decision-making processes about their customary lands and the natural resources found on them leaves Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities vulnerable to continued exploitation that can negatively impact their sovereign rights, livelihoods, and long-term well-being (Table 2) [39].…”

Catalyzing success in community‐based conservation

“…For example, greater investment in capacity-building efforts that foster community engagement and representation in decision-making processes may be important where environmental democracy and voice and accountability are low. Local efforts might involve creating or strengthening community-based organizations and building the capacity for community leaders to more readily participate in decision-making fora, while supra-local efforts might involve advocacy for the enforcement of existing frameworks that call for equity and the inclusion of marginalized groups, increasing their transparency and accountability and removing barriers to access and participation (Gaventa & McGee 2013;Kennedy et al 2022).…”

“…These landscapes have immense socio-cultural and economic value to the communities connected to them (Bridgewater & Rotherham 2019), as well as exceptional conservation value to the world beyond (Frechette et al 2018;Schuster et al 2019;Fa et al 2020;Walker et al 2020). The diverse values embodied by IPLC landscapes are currently under immense pressure from globalization and extractive industrial development (Gilberthorpe & Hilson 2014;IPBES 2019;Kennedy et al 2022), intersecting local and supra-local interests (Dinerstein et al 2019), and forcing acknowledgement of a legacy of ineffective conservation policies and approaches (Brockington & Igoe 2006;Zimmerer 2006;Dowie 2009;IUCN 2020;Tauli-Corpus et al 2020).…”