Indigenous peoples and food entitlement losses under the impact of externally-induced change

Three issues related to hunger, famine and food security are highlighted by the problems faced by indigenous peoples in many parts of the world. They affect not only the indigenous groups themselves, but also the potential for improved and increased food availability for the rest of humankind. First, indigenous peoples themselves continue to be subjected to the shock impact of outsiders in ways that remove their traditional access to land and other resources, especially those that provide customary sources of foods. The shock is therefore very negative in nutritional as well as the better-known cultural and health terms. Second, the destruction and disruption of many indigenous peoples is reducing the pool of knowledge (ethnoschience) available concerning the biosphere and natural resources, which is of widespread value to humanity. Thirdly, this compounds the already well-known shock impact of the invaders on those natural resources through environmental destruction and habitat alteration. These issues have a potential impact on global sustainability that is far greater than might be suggested by the small numbers of indigenous peoples involved. The paper argues for priority to be given to the links between hunger and food problems, the human rights of indigenous peoples, and environmental destruction.An earlier verison of this paper was published in Hans-Georg Bohle (ed.).World of Pain and Hunger: geographical perspectives on famine and food security. Saarbrücken/Fort Lauderdale: Breitenbach Publishers, Freiburg Series in Development Studies, 1 (1994)I would like to acknowledge the support of the ESRC (UK), the IGU, the University of Greenwich, and the Henry R. Luce Food Programme at Hampshire College (USA) for enabling me to attend the IGU Workshop at which this was presented. This paper has benefitted from the helpful criticisms of members of that workshop, and of other colleagues in Britain and The Netherlands; I remain responsible for its opinions and any errors.