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Lessons from Niyamgiri Movements Success to Protect an Indigenous Sacred Mountain — Global Issues


The IPBES Assessment of Diversity and Nature Assessment Report tells of the successful campaign of the Niyamgiri Movement.
  • by Joyce Chimbi (Moose)
  • Associated Press Service

This indigenous community worshiped Mount Niyamgiri and lived in an area that spanned more than 250 square kilometers through Odisha’s Raygada and Kalahandi districts. Their survival is tied to the ecological integrity of Mount Niyamgiri.

But in 2003, a socio-economic conflict of values ​​erupted around the mythical sacred realm when Vedanta Resources – a UK-based mining giant – began acquired land to build an Aluminum smelter at the foot of Mount Niyamgiri. This does not require deforestation.

Protests erupted immediately and grew when it was revealed that Vendata also plans to acquire Mount Niyamgiri and mine bauxite, a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminum content. In 2004, the company applied for permission to clear the forest for mining. Environmentalists moved to court.

Such conflicts over short-term profits and economic growth over the values ​​that directly affect communities ascribe to their land came into the spotlight in July 2022 when the IPBES released Nature Assessment and Diversity Value Assessment Report.

IPBES provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments of the state of knowledge in relation to the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems, and the contributions they make to humans, as well as choices and actions to protect and sustainably use these important natural assets.

In this regard, the Values ​​Assessment meets the need to assist decision-makers to understand and take into account the wide range of values ​​of nature in policy decisions aimed at addressing the current biodiversity crisis and to achieve the United Nations SDGs.

Approved by representatives of the 139 IPBES Member States, the full report, released in October 2022, reveals “a major global focus on short-term profits and economic growth, often excludes the consideration of many natural values ​​in policy decisions” and that “decisions based on a narrow set of market values ​​of nature are fundamental to the global biodiversity crisis.” bridge.”

A global biodiversity crisis is increasingly putting economies, food security and the livelihoods of people everywhere in the world at greater risk. For example, IPBES has warned the world that one million species, out of a total of eight million species of plants and animals, are now facing extinction, many within a few decades. Today, the world’s wildlife populations have declined by 69% since 1970.

According to IPBES, rising global gross domestic product leads to increased use of natural resources, and “such extraction policies have resulted in an immediate loss of many natural values ​​at geographical and disparate societies, disproportionately affecting indigenous and local communities.”

The Niyamgiri case illustrates power issues and value conflicts between economic development projects and indigenous peoples and local communities. Sixty-two tribal groups are found in Odisha, of which 13 are particularly vulnerable.

Mount Niramgiri contains about 75 million tons of bauxite. India is one of the top five countries for bauxite production in the global market, according to country data.

The Values ​​Assessment report specifically highlights how losing nature’s values ​​in pursuit of profit has led to the crossing of important planetary boundaries, accelerating dual crises of biodiversity loss. biodiversity and climate change. Such a loss is imminent and the Odisha state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vendata Resources.

A mining project will initiate movement activities to transform a sacred mountain indigenous and ancestral home to the vulnerable Dongria Kondh and Kutia Kondh, and other vulnerable people, into bauxite.

Equally important, the community maintains the Sal Forest because the community respects the taboo against cutting trees atop Niyamgiri. About 90% of the 660 ha mining leased area, agreed between the Odisha state government and the mining company, is considered Sal Forest.

Resistance against the planned attack on nature is first led by the community with the support of professional activists; this led to the birth of the Niyamgiri Movement, a social movement against bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri mountains or indigenous sacred lands.

In 2004, environmentalists petitioned the Supreme Court of India to disallow mining permits, but the petition was unsuccessful. This decision was overturned in 2013 when the Court ordered that the Dongria Kondh’s right to worship the sacred mountain must be “protected and preserved”.

By court order, people with religious and cultural values ​​related to the area must be included in the decision-making process. A local referendum of the affected villages unanimously rejected the mining project.

According to IPBES, “the Niyamgiri case encompasses a range of valuation methods: weighing the company’s ultimate profitability, cost-benefit analysis; focus on instrumental values, depiction of (intrinsic) ecological values ​​and evidence of indigenous (relational) cultural values.”

In this case, it is up to the discretion to influence which value takes precedence and which valuation method is deemed appropriate. IPBES found that this case also “illustrates how different valuation logics succeed or fail to represent different life time frames and value sets”.

IPBES references the Values ​​of Life Framework that links the richness of the way people experience and think about nature with the diverse ways in which nature matters. It shows why the natural world is important. People can live from, live in, live with or as nature.

Living ‘being’ nature characterizes identification with nature and people. Living ‘with’ nature means living in harmony with nature and living ‘from’ nature, prioritizing benefits such as profit and economic growth from natural resources over the integrity of the ecosystem.

The court’s first decision primarily prioritized economic development and emphasized industrialization. Cost-benefit analysis focusing on instrumental values ​​such as employment income, infrastructure costs, and profitability aligns with Vedanta’s interests.

IPBES emphasizes that conservation activists have relied on both ‘as’ living and living ‘with’ nature. An intact Niyamgiri ecosystem is seen as a core value and activists have highlighted the intersection of cultural and biodiversity values ​​as well as the rights of local communities to define livelihoods. their.

Collectively, the activists tried to represent the most important cultural, spiritual and territorial values ​​for the local indigenous people and won the Supreme Court of India. Today, the mythical kingdom of the Niyamgiri Mountains remains under the control of the descendants of Niramraja, their god-king.

Report of the UN IPS Office


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© Inter Press Service (2022) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service

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