Blowin' in the Wind: Strategies for Implementing FPIC and Maintaining Peace
MacLaren, Oliver
The paper examines strategies for exploring development on lands where ownership and other interests are contested by groups with indigenous claims to the territory. First examined is the growing recognition of indigenous rights to land in both domestic and international forums, noting how these forums have served to inform one another. Next, the intervening period between the assertion of a right and its universal recognition is examined, marking this period as a time of heightened risk, where the potential for entrenchment of position, stalled development, and even violence, is present. The paper then examines the measures promoted by various bodies to encourage development in this period of risk, bringing activities of states and private developers into adherence with existing domestic and international law. A case study for successful development on contested lands follows, namely, the renewable energy policies adopted by the Canadian province of Ontario and the resulting McLeanns Mountain Wind Project.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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