Conservationists evict Indians

Socially responsible investing gets a Native interface"Starting with the Micmac and Yellowstone Park, indigenous peoples have been evicted to make way for national parks in about 230 cases to date. ... Globalization has accelerated the rate of what I call 'asset stripping' of indigenous peoples' lands ... Global indigenous peoples are 5 percent of population, 22 percent of land, 80 percent of the world's remaining biodiversity. The rate of asset stripping is devastating our peoples." It endangers the environment as well, she added, as indigenous stewardship often gives way to resource exploitation in one form or another.

Worse news still for her audience was that some of the best-funded conservationist organizations have collected large grants from environmentally conscientious donors to help accomplish "conservation eviction." (The practice of displacing indigenous people from their homelands to make way for conservation parks also goes by the name of "soft eviction.") Conservation eviction has been led in large part by the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society, Adamson said.Comment:  To learn more about conservationists evicting Indians, read American Indians and National Parks.