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Indigenous Peoples and the Ethics of Resource Extraction

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Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics

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Synonyms

Extractive industry; Human rights; Indigenous rights; Self-determination; Sustainability; Tribal peoples; Values

Indigenous Peoples and the Ethics of Resource Extraction

More than 370 million indigenous peoples encompass some 5,000 distinct cultural identities spread across 90 countries worldwide (UN 2009). The territories upon which they depend for survival cover about 20% of global land surface, yet hold 80% of the planet’s biodiversity (Sobrevila 2008). Indigenous peoples make up just 5% of the world’s population, yet comprise upward of 90% of Earth’s cultural diversity speaking roughly 70% of the world’s remaining 6,000–7,000 languages, half of which are threatened with extinction this century and even more of which are experiencing critical attrition of the ecological contexts that keep their languages alive (Posey 1999; Toledo 2001; Sobrevila 2008). Thus, the areas of greatest biodiversity on Earth hold the planet’s greatest cultural diversity in a symbiotic...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, it has been estimated that over half the world’s remaining mineral resources may be located in the territories of indigenous peoples. See the “Introduction” to Doyle’s (2015) monograph, Indigenous Peoples, Title to Territory, Rights and Resources.

  2. 2.

    For a worthwhile resource, see Survival International: http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes.

  3. 3.

    This has resulted in ongoing opposition and at times violent conflict. Examples include mining and the Bougainville Conflict in Papua New Guinea from the 1980s to 1990s; expulsion and internment of Penan peoples due to logging in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia, since the 1980s; oil conflict in Niger Delta with Ogoni people ongoing from the 1990s; violent conflict with indigenous Amazonians in Bagua, Peru, in 2009, in Puyo, Ecuador, in 2015, and currently in the Pastaza region of Ecuador with Shuar and Achuar peoples in response to consultation issues related largely to petroleum and mining more recently; confrontations between police and Mi’kmaq people of New Brunswick, Canada, over fracking, 2013; ongoing conflict related to palm oil expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia; ongoing opposition to the Bello Monte Dam by indigenous peoples along the Xingu River, Brazil; opposition to Site C Dam by Treaty 8 First Nations of Canada; ongoing concerns and opposition to uranium mining by Navajo people in the United States; and resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline by indigenous peoples in South Dakota, 2016/2017.

  4. 4.

    Examples include agreements with mining companies and Aboriginal peoples in central Australia; agreements between Dene people and diamond mining industry in Canada’s Northwest Territories; collaborative economic development initiatives with Treaty 8 First Nations and petroleum industry in Alberta, Canada; Sakhalin Island indigenous peoples’ agreements with petroleum industry in Russia.

  5. 5.

    Listen to Chief Oren Lyons in the YouTube video, "We Are Part of the Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSwmqZ272As.

  6. 6.

    From the video, "Pimachihowan: Living with the Land.” This video introduces Boreal Cree concepts as cultural analogues for consultation and accommodation to engage a broader discussion on cultural sustainability; viewable on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/147150995.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    David Lertzman

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  1. David Lertzman
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Correspondence to David Lertzman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Deborah C Poff

  2. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

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  1. Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Wesley Cragg

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Lertzman, D. (2017). Indigenous Peoples and the Ethics of Resource Extraction. In: Poff, D., Michalos, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_129-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_129-1

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