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.
