Green or Greed: The Biofuels Act of 2006 and Its Effects on the Rights and Welfare of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

Various communities of indigenous Peoples view the Biofuels law differently. There are groups who have already presented their lands to biofuels developers so as to make use of the lands they are not able to utilize. In the case of Jatropha since it is a crop that grows in almost every soil type - even in acidic soil - it is an opportunity to make use of degraded lands. There are also IP communities which have consented to the investors who wanted to make use of their lands through the NCIP. Whether these groups have consented voluntarily or exercised their freedom of choice properly informed is unknown. Some IP experts hold that IPs would generally be opposed to projects like the biofuels law that entail large scale modification of their environment, given an entirely different situation. If the IPs are actually not so economically marginalized, they will not consider relying on such destructive activities for their survival. There are IPs who view anything associated with development with enmity. The Biofuels Act is one of those policies sugarcoated with the national development rhetoric. This is not due to a narrow outlook or ignorance often attributed to IPs. This is because of the countless projects masked as “development” which have been implemented in their territories bringing with them no development of any sort.