Andean indigenous rights and Amazon conservation in global politics

Anthropology

Andean Indigenous Interest and Rights regarding the Politics of the Amazon

In today's society, there is a tremendous need for global initiatives to support biodiversity, conservation and the protection of nature, as well as the culture of local inhabitants, especially those living in the Amazon. In recent years, many governments and coalitions have partnered with communities and native leaders to protect biodiversity and culture.

Grass-roots organizations and scientific discoveries have increased awareness about these issues, which include democratic participation by indigenous people, intellectual property rights, and cultural and ethnic identity. Within the context of globalization, the world is shrinking, and the dominant cultures, those of Europe and the United States, are penetrating the local world, including the indigenous groups in the Amazon basin. This paper will discuss the Andean indigenous interest and rights regarding the politics of the Amazon.

Introduction

Global interest in ecological issues began in the mid-1980's. The World Commission on Environment and Development's Brundtland Report was one of the first calls from the United Nations for action (Foller, 1997). Concern over the tropical forest of the Amazon region, and the right to land and survival of its native peoples. spread quickly and soon became a global issue.

Since the Europeans first encountered the Amazonian region, various images of the people living in the region have been developed. The first image is one of superiority.

As early as the sixteenth century, Europeans have documented stories of their encounters with the indigenous populations.

In "The conquest of America: The question of the other," Todorov (1982) describes the encounter between two separate world views by interpreting how Christopher Columbus and the first conquerors were caught within their own social context, as were the Amazonian people. Todorov describes the Europeans' world-view as three-dimensional, expressed as the Natural (harmony between man and nature), the Human (culture, material wealth) and the Sacred.

Basically, the difference in cultures led to many misconceptions. The natives did not wear clothing, an act that the Europeans interpreted as an obvious lack of culture. Therefore, the Europeans viewed the natives as closer to the natural world, and they became as a part of the landscape,.".. somewhere between birds and trees" (Foller, 1997). Christopher Columbus observed that the native were pagans, without law and religion. Columbus could not see past his own views of culture, which included money, clothes and material things, to understand the unique culture of the natives.

As a result, from the beginning, there was a general feeling of superiority, which causes protectionist behavior (Foller, 1997). Due to this image, the early Europeans perceived the natives as weak, poor, ignorant, infantile and helpless, and unable to take care of their problems. While these images have been modified as time went on, a good part of this perception persists even today, as the fate of the region is more than ever before integrated into global society and the prevailing capitalistic system.

The next image contradicts the first image. This is the image of the noble ecological savage, which is based on the idea of the Amazonian people as living in harmony with nature (Foller, 1997). This is the image most frequently spread by the media, which often uses the indigenous people as a universal symbol for saving the planet from ecological damage.

Basically, the natives have become the key symbols and participants in the development of an ideology and organizational network that links Amazonian conflicts to international issues and social movements. There is a major problem with this image, as it is little more than a Western projection of how we would like the indigenous peoples to be, and is accurate.

The third image is that of the Amazon region as empty space, which is an inaccurate misconception that makes various parties feel that they have the right to enter the area and take it over as if no one had any claims to the land (Foller, 1997). For example, many ecologists looking for study sites that would allow for examination of natural' processes uncontaminated by anthropogenic effects tend to neglect the human history of the region.

These three images outline the problems that the indigenous people face politically, socially and culturally. The view of superiority is a major problem. "The activities of the various actors differ according to their incentives, which images they have of nature, and the degree of their motivation to act on behalf of the indigenous people. The economic activities taking place in the Amazon today are in the mainstream of globalization, in the sense that people living in the tropical forest are affected by events and decisions taken far away from them. Their land, culture, identity, worldview and knowledge are changing due to this globalization process. The invasion of the world system, with national, international and transnational actors into Amazonia, which is affecting the environment and the lives of its inhabitants, is not only being accepted, but also met with a certain resistance (Foller, 1997)."

About the Amazon

The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical forest in the world, and includes eight countries (Brazil, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) and French Guiana. The Amazon is well-known around the world for its biodiversity, geological reserves, and human culture. It holds the largest river in the world, as well as the most diverse fish species, and more plant species than all of North America and Europe combined.

For these reason, there is great concern over conservation and development in the area, which has increase more and more since the first humans sought to transform its natural resources to enhance human civilization. Today, global communication has globalized trade and the world's economic systems, perhaps, posing to further impact the conservation and development dynamics of the Amazon.

Since the 1950s, Amazonian countries have opened the forest's natural resources (such as timber, minerals, fossil fuel reserves) to domestic and international markets. Amazon development has resulted in the urbanization and industrialization of cities. However, these developments pose a variety of risks to the indigenous people of the Amazon region.

The natives depend upon specific lands and territories for their economic livelihoods, social well-being, and cultural survival. According to the World Bank (2002): "Historically, indigenous lands have been coveted by outsiders, and indigenous labor has been mobilized for indentured or low-paid work in mines and on cattle ranches and plantations. Missionaries have played an important role in cushioning the negative effects of Western contact (disease, forced dislocation, etc.), but their programs have been introduced at the price of generating dependency and a loss of indigenous religions. values, and cultural pride."

After World War II ended, Latin American governments have become global leaders in initiating the processes of cultural change among indigenous communities (Davis and Partridge, 2002). In many cases, they have done so through creating labor abuses, agrarian reform legislation, and the design of various educational, public health, job-training, and rural development programs. The majority of these government programs have been international and paternalistic, and hardly any have considered the cultural strengths of the indigenous populations or even involve their participation.

While there have been some cases of bilingual education and improvements in public health, government-sponsored rural development efforts have not improved the overall welfare or opportunities of the nation's indigenous population (Davis and Partridge, 2002).

Instead, government programs have ensured that the natives remain the poorest, most underprivileged and most destitute of the region's population, with the highest rates of infant mortality and childhood malnutrition and the lowest rates of literacy, and schooling.

Serious Situation

Since the 1990's and the formation of the Indigenous Peoples Fund, the indigeneous movement has rapidly been gaining strength in Latin America (Fraser, 2001). Since the movement staged its first "uprising" in recent years, it has gathered force in many other countries.

In January 2000, a protest by Ecuador's indigenous groups, supported by military colonels, resulted in the overthrow of President Jamil Mahuad (Fraser, 2001). Coca-growing campesinos from central Bolivia and indigenous groups in the Andean countries have periodically shut down transportation over the past few years. In addition, Felipe Quispe, an Aymara leader, has emerged at the forefront of the movement.

The Amazon's most famous indigenous struggle made the news on Jan. 1, 1994, one day after the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, when the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) launched a rebellion in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas (Fraser, 2001). After a short armed revolt, a negotiated agreement and long years of political work, Congress finally recognized an Indigenous Rights Law, yet cut out the clauses regarding self-determination.

Today, indigenous groups are no longer demanding only that the nation-state respect the individual rights of indigenous people, but also the collective rights of indigenous peoples. As a result, many governments have taken various steps to include the interests and opinions of indigenous groups. Ecuador's new constitution recognizes that country as "pluriethnic" and "multicultural," as does Colombia's. However, legally, this means very little.

International law says that every 'people' has the right to self-determination," says Hilario, an activist (Fraser, 2001). "The question is whether or not indigenous peoples are 'peoples.' No government currently recognizes ethnic groups as peoples. In the United Nations, the Human Rights Commission recognizes them as 'indigenous populations,' not 'indigenous peoples.' There is now a large-scale international movement to get states to recognize their ethnic groups as peoples."

New Vision

In recent years, the indigenous people have grown tired of waiting for government assistance and have begun taking matters into their own hands (Davis and Partridge, 2002). Over the past twenty years, there has been somewhat of a cultural renaissance among the natives and the coalitions that have formed to help them. In many countries where there are large indigenous populations, younger and more educated Indians are embracing their indigenous cultural roots and identities, and forming new ethnic organizations and federations.

Basically, the indigenous people and their supporters are seeking to eliminate many of the negative attitudes toward indigenous people, particularly the three negative images discussed earlier in this paper. By taking an active role in local decision-making and development policies, embracing indigenous languages and cultures, and gaining some control over indigenous lands and natural resources, these groups are assuming an active political role.

According to the World Bank (2002), one of the oldest and most successful of the indigenous organizations is the Shuar Federation in the tropical forests of eastern Ecuador. This organization was formed in the 1960s, under the impetus of Catholic missionaries, to provide the Shuar, who had few rights, with some type of collective legal protection from colonists who were taking over their territory. The federation successfully petitioned the government for collective land titles. This was a major step toward the political rights of the indigenous people.

During the 1970's, the Shuar Federation founded a bilingual radio school program, which changed the nature of schooling and education in the rain forest (Davis and Partridge, 2002). Before the program was established, less than half of native children completed primary school, mainly because school curriculums did not take into account the children's native language and culture.

Over the course of a decade, the federation-managed radio school program helped many children receive the education they deserved, and the number of schools connected into the radio network and staffed by federation-trained teachers increased from 30 to 177. In the 1980s, the government officially recognized the program and used it as a model for other bilingual and bicultural school programs.

Conclusion

Throughout the Andean countries of Latin America, indigenous movements are becoming more and more popular, as native demand their rights and question the values of globalization. Globalization stands to destroy many of the natural resources of the Amazon, which would prove to be detrimental to the indigenous culture. Many natives depend on the Amazon and will go extinct without it. Their entire culture will become extinct. This is anthropologically significant.

The Andean indigenous culture and livelihood does not exist anywhere else in the world. The indigenous people live harmoniously with nature and have learned to incorporate in their lives in their daily rituals and celebrations also. Sustainability is immersed in their beliefs. The indigenous have gained a lot of ground in the past years, as they are frequently on the news fighting for their rights and beliefs.

The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico was merely the beginning of an era, as indigenous movements are affecting politics in many countries (AmericasNet, 2002). Ecuador has recently experienced a great indigenous political pressure and protests, as has Bolivia. Chilean indigenous rights movements have been rekindled recently.

And in Central America, indigenous groups in Honduras and Guatemala have started efforts at political expression, while the organization Yatama, representing indigenous peoples in Nicaragua's Atlantic region, blocked a major highway to protest their lack of political rights.

According to AmericasNet (2002), "In some cases, such as in Mexico, the focus is human rights and political activism; in others, such as Colombia, it is environmental issues. In both of these examples, as well as others, critics accuse international connections and support of blowing the movements out of proportion. This attitude errs by discounting the importance of the local support base."

These incidents may be small when isolated, but they represent a trend that clearly demonstrates the needs of indigenous groups who live in poverty and are having their human rights violated. The campaigns demonstrate great urban and rural social protest, as well as the need for more worldwide recognition and support for the Andean indigenous groups.