Tourism Treading on Indigenous Land, Says Rights Group
01.11.2007, 08:59
An international rights advocacy group is demanding the world's tourism industry shed business practices that harm indigenous communities and their cultures.
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In many countries, indigenous communities have been forced off their lands by tourism-related activities, according to Minority Rights Group International (MRG), a London-based independent organization.
"[Indigenous groups] continue to be denied access to their ancestral homes and rarely benefit from the income generated through tourism," notes Cynthia Morel, a legal expert associated with MRG.
Mindful that tourists are becoming increasingly conscious of environmental issues, the industry is currently engaged in building more and more wildlife and nature resorts.
Though highly profitable from the industry's point of view, many of these resorts have proved detrimental to the interests of indigenous communities, who have lost their traditional ways of life and means of livelihood, according to the rights group.
"Often tourists choose the eco-friendly option because they are sensitive to the environment," said Morel, "but they are oblivious to the extent and impact of displacement of indigenous communities in such cases."
In Kenya, for instance, pastoralist communities such as the Maasai and the Endorois were forcefully evicted from their ancestral lands without proper compensation to build the world famous game and nature park reserves that attract thousands of tourists every year, the group said.
And Kenya, according to Morel, is not an isolated case. Botswana's native Basarwa groups have also been violently removed, in some cases by armed police at gunpoint, to build and expand the world-famous Central Kalahari Game Reserve for tourists.
The MRG call for the industry to mend its ways comes on the eve of the International Day for Responsible Tourism. The UN-designated day will be observed across the world Wednesday.
Earlier this year MRG launched a campaign pushing for vacationers -- and countries promoting environmentally friendly tourism -- to be more aware of the impact of eco-tourism on indigenous communities in the destinations they frequent.
"Often the communities get only a miniscule percentage of what the tourism industry generates. People are overwhelmingly marginalized in the process of development and holidaymakers need to be more conscious about this," Morel said.
The campaign aims to ensure that countries promoting eco-tourism don't infringe on the rights of indigenous groups and that the profits of tourism trickle down to local communities in meaningful quantities.
MRG emphasized this week that eco-tourism projects can be carried out successfully and inclusively, noting in particular the involvement of Ecuador's Huaorani people in nine months of planning about a tourism strategy with a tour operator.
For the first time ever, the world community officially recognized indigenous peoples' rights by adopting a UN resolution in September.
The resolution on the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples emphasizes the rights of the world's oldest cultures to maintain and strengthen their institutions and traditions, as well as to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.
It also calls for the recognition of indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, a principle fully recognized by the UN Human Rights Council, but deemed controversial by the United States and some of its allies.