The Indigenous Right of Participation and Indigenous Community

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2.2 The Indigenous Right of Participation and Indigenous Community Development

The indigenous right of participation can be discussed from the legality of their community development (Lin, 2008).

2.2.1 The Indigenous Right of Participation

The Declarations of World Summits

The World Ecotourism Summit, hosted in Québec City, Canada, by Tourism Québec and the Canadian Tourism Commission, from May 19 to May 22, 2002, adopted the Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism (Lee, 2002). The extract of the declaration of indigenous rights of participation is as below:

1. Acknowledge that ecotourism development must consider and respect the land and property rights, and, where recognized, the right to self-determination and cultural sovereignty of indigenous and local communities, including their protected, sensitive and sacred sites as well as their traditional knowledge.

2. Stress that to achieve equitable social, economic and environmental benefits from ecotourism and other forms of tourism in natural areas, and to minimize or avoid potential negative impacts, participative planning mechanisms are needed that allow local and indigenous communities, in a transparent way, to define and regulate the use of their areas at the local level, including the right to opt out of tourism development.

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On September 13, 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Guided by the purposes and

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principles of the Charter of the United Nations, it places good faith in the fulfillment of the obligations assumed by States in accordance with the Charter, affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such (www.abohome.org.tw 2007.) The extract of the declaration about indigenous right of participation is as below:

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

2. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.

3. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.

4. Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories.

No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.

5. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

6. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples

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concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.

7. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine the responsibilities of individuals to their communities.

From the above, it is clear that the self-determination of the indigenous should be highly respected, anything that may affect them must be well understood, and anything that may change their rights must occur only with their free and informed consent.

2.2.2 Indigenous Community Development

Since 2001, the national government has actively promoted a policy of indigenous community development with the expectation that the industrial development of indigenous communities can be established on the basis of the sustainable utilization of natural resources. In addition, in the process of community building, the government intends to educate indigenous peoples in relevant areas in order to enable them to operate the community industries and to ensure that the communities share in the benefits of the conservation of natural resources.

Currently, in terms of relevant projects that our government has promoted, integrated projects may possibly be applicable to most indigenous peoples. Otherwise, such projects may be considered unique for indigenous peoples, and thus separately planned. Additional specific regulations may be enacted in a plan or project that is applicable to indigenous peoples. Thus, under such circumstances of political emphasis and inclination, the government has a priority to practically implement

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indigenous policy, and it also provides greater protection and guarantees to indigenous peoples in promoting the development of their communities. Related policies on indigenous community development are explained in the next section.

Social Welfare Policy Guidelines

Among the “Social Welfare Policy Guidelines” passed by the Executive Yuan on February 13, 2010, the contents related to the indigenous community building can be divided into the following three points (Su & Tien, 2004):

1. Every level of governments shall encourage community residents to participate in community development, to activate community organizations, to utilize local resources, and to build a vital and autonomous civil society.

2. The government shall integrate those resources of tourism; industry and commerce;

agriculture and fishery; the cultural industry; environmental protection; urban and rural development; historic conservation; education; health; and social welfare, to promote the sustainable development of our community and homeland.

3. The government shall connect the tribal cultures and ecological characteristics of indigenous peoples to promote the new tribal overall building construction. The strategy of this construction project is to integrate the service resources; to upgrade the ranking of administrative organizations for social welfare; to combine the competent authorities of health and social welfare; as well as to integrate departments of labor, education, agriculture, justice, construction, and indigenous peoples in order to enhance the interdepartmental integration and performance management so as to provide whole-person, whole-process, and all-direction services to improve the efficiency of resource utilization. In addition, it will also integrate community building, tourism, indigenous peoples, and sustainable development to construct a sustainable community that conforms to human nature,

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cares about health and welfare, possesses plentiful civil and unique industries, has magnificent landscapes and respects the surrounding ecology.

The Indigenous Tribal Sustainable Development Plan is based on the framework of the “Taiwan Six-Star Health Community Project” (Executive Yuan, 2006) to assist Taiwan’s indigenous tribes in inspecting and surveying their cultural and historical context and the current status, advantages, and difficulties in tribal development. With the guidance of tribal organizations (or tribal councils), the project helps indigenous tribes with planning integrated development blueprints and visions, strategies for implementing such blueprints, and proposing the goals and requirements for phase development. In addition, based on the guidance, the project proposes plans and applies for government subsidies for tribal building construction projects in order to achieve the goal of “Tribalism (Communism)”.

2007 Executing Plan of Indigenous Tribal Industry Development

This plan was executed in accordance with the “3-year Executing Plan of Tribal Industry Development for Indigenous Peoples (2006 to 2008)” enacted by the Executive Yuan. The purpose is mainly to improve the primary industry, secondary, and tertiary industries that indigenous people depend on to make a living, while incorporating natural, organic, pollution-free, and low energy-consumption characteristics, to achieve the goal of sustainable operation. The plan focuses on the tribal traditional knowledge economic industry, tribal culture industry, tribal ecological tourism industry, tribal lodge and restaurant industry, tribal tourism industry, agricultural and processing industries, tribal characteristic product promotion and marketing development, and benchmarking guidance of development

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short-term period. Furthermore, the main purposes of this plan are to establish new indigenous industries based on the originality and innovation build high-quality operating environments, develop cultural ecological tourism, create a firmly-rooted indigenous industry, and provide tribal talents with sufficient employment opportunities (Council of Indigenous Peoples, 2007).