Resource geopolitics and indigenous peoples

Resource geopolitics is about who gets what, when, where and how. Control of resources has long shaped world power and caused wars.

• Once it was timber, needed for the navies of the European powers.
• In the twentieth century it was oil: whoever controlled oil supplies held great power.

The North made sure of its supplies by:

• sending military forces near key regions;
• building up stockpiles;
• supporting friendly governments in resource-rich countries, even undemocratic ones;
• backing its multinational companies.

The Gulf region holds about 64 per cent of the world's known oil reserves, which is why it has seen so much outside interference and war.

Water may be the next cause of conflict. Rivers cross borders, and countries upstream can cut the supply of those downstream. A country that shares a river is called a riparian state. Some predict 'water wars'.

Indigenous peoples are the descendants of the people who lived in a region before others arrived and took over. Examples are found in the Americas, Australia, the Pacific, and in India's tribal communities. Their main concern is land: losing it threatens their survival and their way of life.

In India, Scheduled Tribes form about 8 per cent of the population, but they are the single largest group displaced by development projects such as dams and mines.

The World Council of Indigenous Peoples was formed in 1975 to give them a voice at the UN.

So indigenous rights bring together environment, resources and politics: the struggle over land is also a struggle over power and over ways of living with nature.