Instead, they transport food from anywhere on the globe to where they live. A dangerous situation results: because they see nothing of the operations, there is little reason to feel responsible for the results of their distant operations, regardless of how injurious the results might be. This means that it is imperative for indigenous people to insist that local project managers be accountable for the potential results of the operations on the local communities.

Business leaders express frustration, sometimes even contempt, that the local community does not respond in a business-like manner, and they can be confused by indigenous people who do not share their values. Business people often have difficulty accepting the concept that a small number of people should have the "right" to refuse to allow a larger number of people to benefit from the resources present on the land which they occupy. This may be compounded because non-indigenous ideas of ownership are often different from indigenous people's ideas.

Just as the corporate president brings a large set of assumptions and values to the project, so does the local community. Conflicts arise when these two sets of assumptions and values differ with important consequences for either or both sides. Sometimes simple things can become a major problem. For example, the word "yes" can mean two different things. In a discussion about a project, the leaders of a local community may say "Yes," meaning " I hear what you are saying, and I will get back to you." The corporation managers hear "Yes," and report that the local community has agreed to go ahead with the project. Properly handled, development projects can be of great benefit to all parties, and the decision-making process one in which there is satisfaction on all sides. Handled badly, these projects can degenerate into battles that ultimately drive indigenous people from their land, destroy their culture, and even result in the destruction of the people.

Scientific Knowledge
Scientific information is almost all freely available to anyone in the world. There is a huge amount of it, so much that no one person can know even a minute fraction of what is available. Furthermore, much of it is still in the form of scientific papers, or even just raw data. In scholarly works, the useful knowledge is often buried in technical wording or complicated mathematics that only a university-trained person or specialist can understand.

In science, the most important information is that which can be used in a scientific principle, usually expressed as a theory or maxim that has broad general application. While these theories or maxims provide understanding on a broad scale, they are not immediately useful on a local scale. Data from the local situation must be applied to the general principle, so the theory can be used locally.

The following guidelines should help indigenous people cooperate with non-indigenous groups planning development projects in their areas to everyone's mutual benefit, while continuing to support the traditional lifestyles and culture of the local people.

Indigenous Guideline #1:

Form a Representative Group
Choose Team Members According to Skills
Before you do anything else, create a representative group. The people chosen will become a team, so choose them on the basis of the skills they can bring to the project. Give them authority to bring recommendations back to the community. One person should be named as the leader of the group. Make sure everyone in the group understands the limits to his or her decision-making authority (if any) without coming back to the community as a whole. Having a representative group of indigenous people empowered by the entire community to represent it, will make negotiations smoother. Corporations will resist the prospect of having to make decisions during a meeting with the entire community present. This is because in corporate-style decisions representatives are delegated the authority to make decisions on the basis of policies or strategies adopted by the corporation. Thus, it is normal business practice for only a few people to be involved in the actual decision. They will be able to adapt to the idea of the representative group taking recommendations back to the entire community for decisions, as long as they are informed first, and as long as the decision-making process is relatively rapid.

The make-up of the representative group from the community is important. All parts of the community should be represented: elders, men and women, and young people. The leader should be someone the entire community respects, perhaps an elder. Other representatives should include people who have special knowledge of the area where the project is to take place. Women must be included in the representative group assigned to take the lead for the particular spheres of traditional knowledge they hold, and the special role they play in stewardship. Women should not be a subsidiary or "special interest group"working off to the side and reporting to the main group; instead, on the principle of women and children first, they need to have a central role or leading role.

Become a Legal Entity
Your community will need to have legal status. If possible, use an existing corporate entity, such as an incorporated town or village. If there is no legal entity, consider creating one that includes the whole community. This will become a vehicle for legal negotiations over traditional intellectual and cultural property rights, and traditional resource rights. Indigenous people have worked hard all over the planet to acquire and maintain their rights. The degree of progress is very impressive, but there is still a very long way to go.

Following your instincts may not be the right thing to do when dealing with business leaders - especially if your cultural roots and experiences are from the land. Business and legal thinking are based on "non-cooperative"principles requiring advocates (lawyers) to establish the limits of the projects. Indigenous people's thinking is often based on cooperative or "communal"values. These cooperative instincts quickly succumb in a conflict situation with business proponents.

Teach the Corporation How to Interact with Your Community.
A local community can help corporations by offering to teach the managers of the project the way of indigenous people. In Kenya, Africa, for example, the national museum offers courses to diplomats and business people on proper etiquette for interacting with the many tribes in the region. This enhances the experience of business and indigenous people working together, and brings modest income to the museum and to the involved communities.

Indigenous Guideline #2:
Predict All the Impacts of the Project
Good Predictions Mean Good Decisions
The most critically important task, but also the most complicated task, is to predict correctly what all the different effects will be on the community from the project. The whole point of environmental assessment is to make the best possible estimate of all the effects: good, bad, and uncertain. Once these effects or impacts are defined, the community can make decisions and plan what to do. If fishing will be reduced or destroyed, is the project worth it? If the community will receive a financial package to offset the loss of other opportunities, is it enough to make up for other changes to the cultural and social traditions of the community?

Including Women and Women's Knowledge Improves Predictions
It is important to have women as a major part of the group doing the predicting. They have special skills and very different perspectives to those of men in examining the future prospects of the project. Different perspectives are often the key to successful predictions. Because any negative impacts of a development project are likely to be felt most severely by women and children, it is critical that women be asked to predict the long-term effects the project will have specifically on their lives and well being.

Remember that the invisible economy of "women's work" is usually not factored into environmental assessments. Its contribution to the stewardship of biodiversity, and its contribution to a community's, and even a culture's, viability, must be specified. The deleterious effects of women's loss of self-sufficiency if this economy is damaged also need to be specified.

Be Skeptical of Predictions of Great Wealth
Predictions of great wealth resulting from the project should be viewed with healthy skepticism. Get comparative views of the growth and profit level of other similar projects. Where does the profit go? What portion of it will stay in the community, and what will go to head office? Who from the community will be employed and to do what kind of jobs? What spin-off or support services can be started up? How long will the operational aspect of the project go on? Is it a one-shot deal or can the community come to rely on the industry being a permanent part of the community? If the community does become dependent on the industry from the project, what will happen when the project is finished or does not live up to expectations?

Leave Broad Margins of Error in Predictive Modelling
Because neither science nor traditional knowledge has particularly accurate means of predicting long-term effects, it is important to make the estimates of the impacts of a project with broad margins of error. For instance, suppose that on the basis of best knowledge from both non-indigenous and indigenous traditional knowledge bases, it is known that a herd of animals usually takes a particular route, but that it often takes a second route. Suppose further that science predicts the herd could be encouraged to take the first route exclusively, but traditional knowledge knows the herd's route needs an alternative in special circumstances. In this case, take the cautious position: it would be wise to maintain the second route. Later specific experiments might restrict part of the herd's access to only one route to see the result. If both parties accept that this approach will take several years to accomplish, and come to a mutual understanding that the resource will be managed jointly, it is an excellent outcome.

Don't forget that important knowledge can be derived by living on the land, and watching it react to natural forces over long periods of time. The most common scientific mistake in environmental assessments is to predict impacts on the basis of a short-term look at specific species. For example, models of population levels of specific animals or plants over five to ten year periods are entirely unsuitable for estimating long-term impact to the community. It is critically important to know if gradual changes in natural patterns established for centuries will shift, and in what way they will shift. Of course, it is important to know if the food or clothing sources will be harmed immediately - these will be the first predictions made - but subtle, long-term effects are the most important to understand. Very slow changes in the economy or environment over years can result in social and cultural erosion, resulting in devastation that only becomes apparent years later. Take time to understand all the long-term effects that might happen from the project. Take time to be skeptical about the likelihood that the status quo will be maintained. It may well be that the community is anxious to change the status quo. If so, this makes change easier to accept; if not change will be difficult. In all cases, changes tend to create conflict within the community, and between the community and the outside world.

Indigenous Guideline #3:
Don't Be Left Out
Be Alert for New Projects
Be alert so that if a project is going to be proposed for your area, you know about it and can become involved.
Pre-empted Decisions? - Hang in There!
Don't just refuse to cooperate when decisions have pre-empted some of your authority. Find out what legal recourse is available. While legal recourse may be unpleasant, other communities have launched suit against a corporation while at the same time continuing to participate in the assessment process. Moral suasion with both the public and government agencies can be brought to bear through the media. Not all governments are susceptible to moral high ground, and careful attention to different government regimes is needed. A standard reaction from corporations to non-cooperation from the community, is to proceed without considering the needs of the local community. If this is allowed to happen, the local community has lost everything it might have bargained for. Be sure to participate, even if some ground has already been lost. The usual decision that is taken without consultation is the decision to proceed with the project. If the project is clearly going to be detrimental, legal action or media and public pressure may reverse or modify decisions. If so, this gives you considerable power to influence all the decisions. If your community must accept an unfavourable project, stay in the assessment or development process. Do not give up. Even decisions that can only be made inside the project can be influenced to mitigate unacceptable results of the project. Often by using public pressure and other stakeholders, the most important aspects of design, scale, schedule, and financing may be reconsidered.

To Be Effective Participate Fully
To have an informed influence on decision-making you must be prepared to participate, to understand the project, to help predict the impacts, to inform others in the community, and to understand and protect your rights and those of the community. Use the Guidelines as a place to start. Get involved. You will be completely ignored and have no ability to influence the outcome of an assessment or planning development project unless you are part of the process. You can only be part of the process by participating in it. Standing on the sidelines and complaining will not have any significant influence on the outcome, and may simply entrench the corporation's view that the community is not being cooperative. When this happens, everyone loses.

Establish Financing for Your Participation
Many indigenous communities do not have financial resources to undertake a major development planning exercise or to participate in an environmental assessment. Some governing states require that corporations pay for environmental assessments. Because it will be critically important to have the community's participation funded - at least to some extent - you need to determine if the corporation has made available the financial resources for the community to hire technical advisors and independent reviewers. If not, ask for it as part of the compensation package. This gives the local community an equal footing in the negotiation. It is not enough for the local community to depend on local volunteers to help with the many tasks involved in an environmental assessment of planning a development. As soon as the corporation understands it will be expected to pay for the work of local people, it will want to ensure that its funds are well invested. Therefore, be prepared to explain what your people will be doing and what the corporation can expect to receive in return for its investment. These results will be the basis on which the corporation is likely to pay - be sure you can deliver. Setting rates and fees is an important part of the negotiations. Try to find other examples, or consult the regulatory agency for settlements with the government that will provide benchmarks for rates of pay or fees for service.

Train to Be Involved in the Assessment
This will be a learning exercise. In fact, the people who are most directly involved will have to learn quickly and some of the concepts will be both difficult to grasp and troubling to understand. Training and capacity building therefore, are important. Try to find national, regional, or even local organizations that can provide quick courses in transport and construction policy, marketing strategy, project evaluation as well as other subjects. If none is available, try to involve local aboriginal entrepreneurs in providing informal mentoring on the relevant subjects. But above all, become as prepared as you can to participate in a process that may not be all that familiar.

Participation by Women Will Improve the Assessment
Since women will put different items on the agenda for discussion and review, make sure that they are included as the community organizes to participate. It is also important to increase and support women's capacity to participate, as many of them will not have "formal" positions in the community which will automatically lend themselves to this, and their extensive responsibilities in caring for their families can make participation difficult.

Furthermore, women (as well as men) will benefit from guidance in understanding the critical role only they can play in environmental assessment. This guidance should also help them to represent and support their positions effectively, especially in the instance of conflict. Because women are not yet institutionally supported in the presentation of their views, these points of view are often violated in assessment processes, so extra measures must be taken.

Use Communication Techniques to Meet Your Needs
What are your best ways of keeping everyone informed? Whatever they are, use them all the time. In some communities, the only means is by sending people to talk to others. In others, there will be radio and perhaps television. If your community has access to telephones, radio and television, use phone-in talk shows to allow everyone in the community to express his or her views. Try to get the local television station, if there is one, interested in doing a news feature on the project. Arrange with the corporation for the community to schedule regular field trips to the project. Make sure the leaders have a way of talking to everyone. A simple principle to use is that people forget what they hear, remember what they see, and learn what they do. Using maps, diagrams, flip charts, artifacts all ensure that people will not forget. If you have the means, use some of the many modern methods, including computer displays and programmes that can be shared with the community so people can take them home. Put them up in community centres, churches, tribal or band head offices, or any other central community facilities. Call general meetings and include the corporation representatives. Remember to arrange translation. Or one of the local people may be able to do it, although formal translation is a tricky business. Try to make sure that the corporation gives you information in advance. If you are making the presentation, try to get information about the subject to the community before the meeting. Use visual aids. If it is at all possible, have a local person record the decisions for the community.

In general, person-to-person contact is the best method of communication. It is not, however, sufficient for decisions. If any decisions, however small, have been taken in person-to-person contacts, it is important that follow-up with documentation be prepared as an audit trail. Town-hall meetings and other meetings should always have some information available to the local community or representatives well in advance. This information should be available for everyone to read, or if reading is difficult, use another medium, such as a series of small gatherings, or a series of poster diagrams, so that everyone can discuss it before meetings. At meetings, arrange to have an official record of decisions taken by someone from the local community if possible (not from the corporation unless there is no one in the community who can do it). This record should be circulated in draft form for everyone to comment on before it is finalized. If the community has no one who can record decisions, the corporation will need to do it, then read the words on the piece of paper and get the community to agree that was what took place, or modify the record until all agree . A video record of the meeting, a copy of which is deposited with the local community, would be both entertaining and a sufficient record if later disputes need to be settled.

Since indigenous women are not yet widely organized to offer leadership to the environmental assessment process "although there are several fine examples of women's leadership that can serve as models, such as Chipko in India" special attention will need to be paid to ensure that they are kept informed in a direct and timely manner, and that the information reaches them in language they can relate to, and that addresses their concerns.

Working with the Media: Be Message Driven, Not Question-Driven
Working with the media can be a two-edged sword. Often the media are extremely sympathetic to indigenous people's causes, but sometimes the media can get a twisted slant on a story. Be careful in framing your story to help sway public opinion if you are going to use the media. The key to a successful interview when it might turn hostile is to establish about four or five messages and write them down. Then write down about two or three examples to illustrate each message. Finally try to find at least one very powerful phrase of about five to ten words to state each of the four or five messages. The phrase is what you want the media to pick up as headlines. During the interview, be message driven, not question driven. Always come back to your message as you answer the questions. Do not allow the interviewer to draw you into saying something you don't want to say.

Indigenous Guideline #4:
Know the Rules
Government Sets the Rules, the Corporation Defines the Process
It is all very well to participate, but you must know the rules before you agree to start, or you will be at a great disadvantage. These rules are set by the governing state or nation, the regional and local governments, the regulatory agencies, the corporation's normal practice, and the norms of practice in your country. The most difficult to find out about is corporate practice and yet it can also be the most important. The corporation will have had many opportunities to devise methods of getting permission to carry out its projects with the least interference from outside parties (including local indigenous communities).

The following are useful questions to ask about the agency that will be overseeing the process (if there is such a body):

1. What is the history of the regulatory agency responsible for this project? Has the process changed recently - if so why? Was the process reliable for indigenous people? Did the agency follow through on its committments?
2. What legislation or policies does the agency use? Are the legislation or policies under revision?
3. What resources can the regulatory agencies offer to the indigenous community? What resources can the indigenous community offer to the agency to help the process?
4. What techniques could be used to involve the public, and when could they be used?

Establish Your Own Spokespersons
It is normal business practice to have a project manager assigned from within the corporation. This person will be the prime contact, and the corporation will expect all routine communication and all decisions to flow through this single person. They expect this person to organize internal meetings and to establish within the corporation all of the strategic positions and policies before he or she approaches the community. The corporation will expect the same of the community. It will expect a single person to be the contact, and, even if others are routinely contacted, the community representative will be expected to have decision-making authority.

In many indigenous communities the entire community is usually involved in decisions. There is no reason why this cannot continue to be the case. The corporation may expect to have the community representative and its own representative meet regularly and engage in a certain amount of face-to-face negotiation without anyone else present. The community will need to decide as a group just how far its representative can go in any discussion without coming back to the community. In fact, the community would be wise to establish a small team to represent its interests, with one person designated as the leader. This is exactly what the corporation will do as well. There will be limits to what the project manager can give up in any negotiation without going back to the corporation. These limits may be much broader than the local community will agree to give its representatives - not because the community does not trust them, but simply because the normal practice is to discuss decisions as a group before they are taken. If the corporation is helped to understand what the limits of negotiation will be for the community's representatives, it will adjust accordingly. Problems usually arise when the corporation's expectations are derived only from its own perspective, and do not take into account the usual practices of indigenous communities.

Enhance Your Power Base: Include Others
The influence of one person is not nearly as significant as that of an entire community. Involve the entire community. In most projects there are other people or organizations who will directly benefit from or be directly hurt by the project. Still others will be interested in the outcome whenever a project has an impact on the environment. International, national, and regional special-interest nature or environmental clubs and non-governmental advocacy organizations can be invited to become a part of your advocacy group. National or regional aboriginal groups will be concerned about the potential impact on all aspects of the health of the community. Join forces with these other groups in some manner - whatever is your way. If possible, cement the relationship in documentation; this will inform the corporation and the governing state of your representation. When the time comes to negotiate, your power base will be larger than if your community tries to do it alone.

Ask Lots of Questions
In some countries, the local communities are invited to participate very early, in others there is no opportunity unless public pressure is brought to bear. Get into the picture as soon as it is possible - even before the normal process would allow. "Early"is the right time to set up the way in which you will participate, and the way the corporation will interact with you. The most obvious variable to settle is timing. What is the schedule? How much time do you have to react? What if you need more time? Another area of importance is the legal aspects. What regulations will be brought to bear by the corporation? What regulations should the community bring to bear? What enforcement agencies will be involved - and what is the community relationship with them? How will the community participate? Can we assume round-table discussions, and town hall meetings? Or will it be representative counsel and behind-closed-door decisions? To what degree will individuals and the entire community be involved in contractual arrangements? You need to get answers to all of these questions.

Many of these questions can also be asked by taking direct action, such as developing ownership partnerships in which local and state government agree on ownership regimes. Partnerships can be developed with the corporation in which traditional and other forms of knowledge are used together in planning and making decisions. Consider carefully what the long-range targets are and ask yourself if it would be a good idea to create a management partnership in which you and the corporation collaborate to put joint plans into effect. This puts the community directly in partnership with the corporation, especially useful when negotiating continuing monitoring and evaluation over the long-term.

Translation Is Important
Elders hold a great store of knowledge that has been gained from decades of living on the land, and centuries of wisdom passed down in turn by their elders of past generations. Hunters and trappers also hold vast stores of local knowledge, but are usually people out of touch with urbanized centres. For both elders, and trappers and hunters, the mother tongue, and possibly the only language, is likely to be the aboriginal language. There will be a barrier to communicaton because the common languages of business are rarely aboriginal. The solution is to conduct discussions and written communication in the language of the speaker or writer, but to have instantaneous translation available for discussions and simultaneous translated versions available for written material. It is not uncommon for major corporations to hire translators full time.

Women Help Interpret the Rules
Ensure from the beginning that women can and will participate as equals in the process, by designing the process specifically to accommodate them. Women themselves are the only ones able to ensure the process will accommodate them effectively, so women need to be encouraged to be pro-active about their involvement.

Negotiate the Timeline
Probably the most common issue in dealing with corporations is negotiating enough time to carry out the full environmental assessment. Business spends as little time as possible to make decisions. In this view, every day spent in "non-production"is money wasted. By contrast, it takes a great deal of time to carry out the work to understand the potential impacts of a project, to make sure all the indigenous people have been involved, to have time to reflect on the long-term implications of the project, and to ensure that the hunting and cultural schedules of the community have not been disregarded. From a local community's perspective, business can be incredibly impatient; from a business perspective indigenous people can be incredibly slow and "unreliable"(going off to hunt instead of doing what the corporation wants). This is a very difficult part of setting the rules, but also very important. If you do not have enough time, you could seriously misjudge the impacts of the project.

Preserve Your Customary Aboriginal Rights
All aboriginal communities have a series of assumed or customary rights and privileges. Because they are assumed, they are not recorded anywhere. These can be traditional rights of way, hunting rights, fishing rights, dress, ceremonies, and a host of other rights and privileges that are so much a part of everyday life that the people using them no longer think about them. Early in the planning process or in the assessment of the project, it is important to ensure that the project will not interfere with these rights. It is usually not sufficient simply to record the fact that indigenous customary rights will remain; they need to be defined. One way to do this is to have an outside expert in cultural behaviour or ethnography prepare a report on what these customary rights are. Another way is to form a small group within the community to list what the community collectively thinks it should have as rights. This then becomes a part of the agreement between the two parties (community and corporation). You also need to guard against the possibility that creating the record will be used only as a beginning point in a negotiation that will reduce these rights. Financing this aspect will most likely need to come from either the corporation as part of the compensation package or the regulatory agency.

In the situation where the project is unacceptable to the community, or where certain aspects of it are unacceptable, it is extremely important to understand the rules governing the corporation's application for acceptance, or for contesting the project. It is not effective to take a "Not In My Backyard"attitude. Take advantage of the assessment planning and decision-making processes. Focus on the mechanisms that are available to find flaws in the corporation's methodology or planning process; work carefully to define the detrimental environmental impacts. These are the factors that will influence the adjudicators of environmental assessments, or the regulatory agencies, or even the public who can and will bring pressure against corporations that have intentions of damaging the environment unnecessarily. If you find yourself against the proposal, stay involved. This is the only way you can influence the outcome - boycotting the process simply means you do not have a voice. Sign a declaration that your involvement in the assessment process in no way prejudices your views on the need for the development. Then later when the rules allow it, continue to voice your objections to the project.

Indigenous Guideline #5:
Use Your Traditional Knowledge, Don't Give It Away
Transmit Traditional Knowledge on Your Own Terms
Traditional knowledge comes from a wide diversity of experience in nature, from teaching and apprenticeship, working with the land, by absorbing the feel of wild animals and plants, and by listening to legends and stories. Recognizing that traditional knowledge is as much a way of life as it is sets of information, try to imagine how you could transmit this to someone who has grown up in a city, never heard the legends, and is suspicious about this non-scientific approach? Furthermore, remember that the corporation is not really interested in understanding your way of life, only in getting the job done, and that means getting on with the project. In this view, facts, not knowledge or understanding are needed. Time spent groping through a legend that is really a metaphor for how to see why an animal behaves this way instead of some other way is time "wasted". This apparently disrespectful attitude is not intentionally disrespectful. The worker really does not understand traditional knowledge, and does not really care. The immediate need is the answer to the question. Several solutions are possible, but the most likely to succeed is to offer to help solve the problem - not just to provide the data. In this way, you are bringing your own understanding to bear on the problem. This wisdom may bring a swifter solution than simply providing information.

Distinguish Between Ancient and Modern Traditional Knowledge
Be sure to distinguish carefully between ancient traditional knowledge - passed down from generation to generation - and modern traditional knowledge - acquired in present-day circumstances. Ancient traditional knowledge is often more spiritually oriented. An argument is developing in some countries that there actually is a distinction between sacred and secular indigenous knowledge. This is not consistent with true aboriginal traditional knowledge, but because it has been advanced it is important to be aware of it. In this view, there is "empirical knowledge"acquired from experience, and "belief"acquired through spiritual teachings. The argument has been used to discredit the use of indigenous knowledge in environmental assessments. The claim is made that spiritual aspects are non-scientific, and essentially uncontestable. It is further claimed that this provides an unacceptable situation in which holders of traditional knowledge can predict project impacts based on uncontestable sacred knowledge. This is unacceptable if the person making the prediction has a conflict of interest, and this would normally be the case. The counter argument is based on the true definition of traditional knowledge which does not provide anyone with the capacity to make an uncontestable prediction.

Participatory Use of Traditional Knowledge Can Be Better Than Selling It
Don't give away your traditional knowledge -use it. Participate as an expert in round-table discussions. Be part of the research effort, using your knowledge to find answers. Insist that the community be recognized as an entity having traditional knowledge. Classify sites from an indigenous perspective: are they used for hunting, left to rest in a fallow condition just now, ancestral resting places? Do this before or at the same time as the project is gathering information. It is better to make your own decisions. Try not to react to the decisions of the project without your own positions firmly in mind. Establish the worth of traditional knowledge so that a monetary value can be assigned to the traditional knowledge (e.g. paying elders and other people who hold traditional knowledge as equivalents to scientific professionals, establishing payment of royalties, and many other financial aspects). Be prepared to encounter resistance or outright rejection by the corporation of your demand that it pay for knowledge. What is your bottom line - how far do you intend to push the corporation?

Traditional Knowledge of Women Is Often Invisible
Remember that non-indigenous models and scientific data often neglect those "invisible"spheres of women's work and knowledge. Watch closely for these omissions, and challenge models, analyses, and conclusions that neglect them.

Become a Legal Entity
Recognition of groups as legal or special entities is important because the groups can then enter into formal legal agreements. This is the only way to ensure that direct financial benefit will accrue to the groups or the community from the use of traditional knowledge. If you grant access, be sure you understand how to protect your rights to benefits from the knowledge. Require a legal understanding that the relevant traditional knowledge becomes the common property of the group(s) entering into the access agreement. Remember, access to the traditional knowledge must always be through an access agreement with the owners (where these can be identified). Otherwise there is no way to control who has access to the traditional knowledge and under what conditions - access is basically open to anyone unless you insist on using the access agreement.

Shape Your Traditional Knowledge Access Agreements Carefully
Ensure that access agreement(s) define terms for at least the three most common requests for access to traditional knowledge that will occur; 1) where the aim is to manage the resources in partnership, 2) where the aim is to invent patentable products for commercial use, 3) where the aim is to share knowledge freely with others. Access agreements should also specify precisely how access to the traditional knowledge is to be allowed, and by whom.

Once an agreement has been reached that the project will incorporate traditional knowledge in some way (such as participatory research or actual transfer of knowledge directly to the project), it is important to recognize and guard against three potential pitfalls. First, disallow token use of traditional knowledge. Establish the extent of traditional knowledge that is needed at the outset. Tokenism usually takes the form of hiring a couple of people for a few days consulting and claiming traditional knowledge has been used. The second is to avoid providing poor quality traditional knowledge by establishing internal quality-control mechanisms on it. Not all sources of traditional knowledge within the community are high quality. Because the community will depend on the answers derived from the process, ensure good quality information goes into the process. Thirdly, translations may miss nuances of meaning that are important. Young people usually do the translating, and may not have the maturity to know what they are missing. If possible, have them, or a second translate it back to the elder who spoke the knowledge, and who can then correct any misinterpretations.

Indigenous Guideline #6:
Insist on Your Rights, Know Your Bottom-Line
Know Your Rights
Intellectual property and cultural rights are the key to many of the benefits that can accrue from the use of traditional knowledge. Intellectual property rights include the right to own, and therefore to sell or barter, ideas, information, special wisdom or understanding, and knowledge about plants and animals, that are the result of intellectual, artistic, or creative efforts. In non-indigenous society, these ownerships are usually protected by patents and copyrights. It is therefore, important to learn about patent laws and copyright rules and regulations. The community or group that you have formed may need to apply for patents or copyright protection. Because the development of traditional knowledge into marketable products often requires great technical skills and commercial investment, it may be in the group's interest to enter into a partnership with the corporation. Partnerships can take a wide range of forms, from simple royalty arrangements where the group receives an agreed percentage of the gross revenue or profit from the commercial use of the resulting product, to full equity share partnerships in which each partner takes risks and benefits in proportion to the combination of financial and other investments in the project.

In certain situations, indigenous people have the right to own the genetic traits of plants or animals. If you routinely groom or "manage"wild stocks of plants or animals, it is likely they have unique genetic characteristics -you have the right to those unique plant or animal traits

Safeguard Your Rights
This sounds wonderful, but there are certain safeguards that must be taken if the group is to realize the benefits and not lose them to someone else. One of the very first steps that must be taken is to define who will be able to use the traditional knowledge and how it can be used by both indigenous and non-indigenous people. It is used every day, yet it is not common knowledge among non-aboriginal people, so it is uniquely owned by the community. You must therefore determine how you are you going to keep it within your community until you want it released. The release of the information should always be through a legal agreement with the owners of the knowledge which specifies both the way the knowledge can and cannot be used, and also specifies the benefits to come to the community.

Other indigenous communities will have the same or similar knowledge, which creates an added complication. They will not necessarily have the same agreement as you do, or may not be aware they should not divulge the information freely. In many areas, neighbouring indigenous communities are not on the best of terms, especially if they are of different cultural roots. If this is the case, you will need to decide how to deal with the situation in which another community decides to allow access to traditional knowledge that you do not want divulged. Obviously, this is not the right time to exhibit internal dissension; it will be used against you.

There are many interests at stake in a project involving land. There are also special rights that indigenous people have that may conflict with these interests. For a variety of reasons, some innocent, some purposeful, these rights may be ignored in projects that involve a lot of money. Unless you insist on those rights, you will not likely receive them. Therefore it is important to ascertain what rights the law gives you, and how to ensure you get them. Remember also that the legal systems in different countries vary widely; what is easy under North American precedent law, may have no standing in Roman law used in many Latin American countries. Use examples from other countries with care.

Settle the Question of Land Ownership Before You Agree to the Project
Another whole area of rights has to do with ownership of the land, ownership of the resources on the land, and the right to occupy the land even if it is not "owned"by the group. Another very early step you should take is to find out what your "legal"or treaty rights are to land ownership, resource ownership, and your right to occupy the land. Once you know what they are, you must insist on them. A significant complication is that sometimes these rights are acquired more by practice than by documents, so it may turn out to be a complicated negotiation. The more information you have at hand the better your chances are to gain the rights you believe are yours. Summarize the legal implications and make sure everyone understands the situation. If treaty rights or land ownership is in dispute, these questions should be settled before the project is initiated; if they are not, the agreements formed within the project may no longer be valid once the disputes are settled. Remember also that where there is strong disagreement, it is possible to carry out legal action against the corporation while continuing to participate fully in the assessment process.

State Your Limits to the Project
Establish what is acceptable to be developed. Define which areas, which resources, what waters can be used, what limits on air pollution will be acceptable, and any other aspects that become apparent from the particular project. Also define what is off limits, and what is not acceptable to be developed. Are there cultural limits? For example, in tourist development there is always a danger of trivializing native culture and turning it into trinkets. How much of this is acceptable, and how much is not? Once the limits to the project are agreed within the community, and with the corporation, try to establish enforceable standards and codes of practice. It is not useful to have a wish list of standards that no one could monitor or enforce.

Do a Cost Benefit Analysis
How will the project benefit the community? How will the project benefit the corporation? Get this spelled out in great detail, and written down. This will be one of the most controversial and sensitive issues you will face. What is the cost to the community? What damage will be done to the environment? What social and cultural sacrifices will be made? Estimate the costs of these and see what the net cost or benefit really is. This will be the foundation for the negotiation for a compensation package for the community.

Third-Party Arbitration Can Help
There may come a time when negotiations stall. Calling for arbitration can be a means to get past these non-productive situations. Mediation or arbitration carries with it the need to establish the basic assumptions and to agree on an acceptable arbitrator. In choosing an acceptable arbitrator it helps if both parties first define the qualifications such a person should have. Sometimes it can be a respected member of the judicial system; in other situations, it should be someone who has the status of a wise person. Courses are available in many countries so you can learn what to do if mediation or arbitration is required in the process. If there are no courses nearby, try to find someone who has successfully participated in mediation and ask for advice.

Indigenous Guideline #7:
Find Out What the Corporation Knows and How It Operates
Classify Land Use from Your Perspective First
Experience has shown that early identification of "valued ecosystem components"is a critically important early step in the process. If these are not defined early enough, decisions are taken that make safeguarding these areas very difficult or impossible. Valued ecosystem components are areas of land or species that the indigenous people must have to preserve their way of life in the ecosystem. These areas or species need to be defined and classified in terms of their use and value to the community. The corporation will have made an initial assessment of how the land is to be used. Find out how the corporation has classified sites from an industrial perspective (mining, forestry, tourism etc.). Make sure you already have your own classifications for the same piece of land ready. You want your own classifications complete before you even hear what the corporation has in mind, so you are not biased by the corporation's classification. Compare the corporation's classifications to your own. Are there incompatible uses, such as digging up an area for a foundation that is right over a sacred burial ground, or placing a road where a migration route would be blocked? Once any incompatibilities are known, they can become points for later discussions.

Challenge Scientific Findings
Use local experts to interpret and assess the accuracy of information or predictive models proposed by the corporation to be used for this project. Be prepared to challenge incorrect conclusions of scientific enquiry. It is built on the premise that current knowledge is only a working hypothesis that needs to be tested and refined. The very rigour of science makes it a slave to accuracy. All data must be explained by or included in the model. Usually small differences in data points make small differences in the model, but if even one data point is a long way outside the model, the model will need to change radically to include the new information. For example, if a population of animals experiences massive populations swings over a period of ten years, but the existing data in the science data banks has estimates for only one or two years, the model will be totally inadequate, but the inadequacy will not be known to the scientists. With the addition of traditional knowledge, the model becomes much more accurate and allows for these radical shifts in population size.

Create a Report Card on the Corporation's Past
In the earliest stages, it is wise to get a snapshot of the corporation, both from the corporation's perspective and also from a few objective observers if possible. For example most companies will have a package of information including a mission statement, statement of values, environmental policy statements, annual reports, and technical reports similar to what will be prepared in your case. By requesting this information, you can see both what their response is like and also if the information will be a good guide on how to proceed.

Try to find information on the track record of the corporation. The Better Business Bureau in North America, or similar organizations in other countries will have records of complaints. A list of all law suits can be obtained in most countries through legal libraries, on-line annual reports, securities commission findings and other sources. A history of law suits can be very informative, and be used to develop the strategy that will work best in negotiations with the corporation. Approach other communities that have had experience working with the corporation - how did it work out? Examine newspaper articles about the corporation - both from the business section and also from the news sections. If anything makes you suspicious, follow it up with a call to your local media.

Some large mining companies will take representatives of the community to visit projects completed with other indigenous groups, and vice versa. (Placer Dome and Teck Corporation in Canada have done this.) This is an excellent way to see what they have done and to talk directly with people who have already been through the process.

Indigenous Guideline #8:
Know What You Need
Get a Technical Summary
Corporations always make advance plans on paper before they take any major initial steps. Therefore, it will be possible for them to provide the official group with technical documentation. They may be reluctant, but this will be for reasons not related to having the documentation. Usually, full technical documents are quite large and often quite complicated. If this is the case, ask for an accurate summary in easy-to-understand language. While you can welcome offered promotional materials, you really do need to get a technical summary.

The summary report should have all of the details of the project:

1. What is this project all about, why did the corporation choose this location and what other locations were considered?
2. How big is this project intended to be, both in its development and construction phases, and also once it is completed and operational? For instance, how many workers will there be? Are they going to be drawn from the local community or brought in from afar? Of the locals, how many will be in management, how many in blue-collar jobs?
3. What about the obvious changes that the community will see and feel? How is the waste to be treated? What are the planned transportation routes? What are the current plans for post project clean-up? What commitments has the project already made to other organizations to take care of these aspects? Can the community take a dominant role in some of the ancillary operations instead of hiring outside companies to do it?
4. Once you have a picture of how big and inclusive the project is, it is a good thing to know what the total cost of development will be and who will be paying for it. Is this completely corporation financed? Are there partners? Can the community play an investment role?
5. How long will the project last - both the development and construction phase, and also the operation of the project? Does the corporation plan for a "permanent"home in the community? Just what is the long-term picture from the corporation's perspective?

Prepare a Community List of Questions
Prepare a list of needs from the community's perspective. With this list in mind (but not presented formally) discuss informally at least the following items:

1. What is the corporation's estimate of time required to digest the information about the project and the long-term implications for the community?
2. What is the official project timeline?
3. What does the corporation feel about involvement of the entire community - not just the experts?
4. Does the corporation feel at ease with both men and women involved in the process?
5. Has the corporation operated this way in the past?
6. Perhaps your community would like to involve young people so they can see how to become leaders. Is this a problem for the corporation, or would it see this as a good thing?

Get the corporation to give you a complete step-by-step definition of how it feels the environmental assessment is to be carried out. Challenge this whenever you disagree with the process. Compare it to the documents you will get from the government on how the regulations state these assessments should be carried out.

Hire Someone You Trust to Interpret Science-Based Knowledge
Hire someone you trust to find out what science will be used to make the predictions about the project. Have this person transform the technical jargon into plain language. To do this will require a true understanding of principles ranging from predictive ecology to theories of economic development. Make sure this person can communicate well in your language, and also knows science well. He or she can help to determine what original research will be needed using both traditional and non-indigenous knowledge bases to come up with reasonable predictions of impacts.

Protect Your Community From Societal Impacts of Alcohol, Drugs, Diseases, Migration to Cities
If your community is not accustomed to interacting with non-indigenous value systems, it will be very important to protect your community from unwanted intrusion onto your cultural values. Typically indigenous communities suffer greatly from alcohol and drugs being brought into their community. Young and old alike can fall victim to overuse of these substances. Health problems arise from the invasion of germs from non-indigenous people; these include simple viruses to sexually transmitted diseases. Indigenous people are more vulnerable to these because they have not built up immunities. Increased wealth often draws young people and men away from the local community to seek work or riches in distant towns or cities. This leaves the women and children behind without the necessary infra structure and support system normally provided by the men. Under these conditions, disease and malnutrition are common results. Rapid erosion of the cultural and social norms follows abandonment of the local community by men and youth.

Indigenous Guideline # 9:
Find Out What the Corporation Wants from You
Begin a Full Dialogue
Invite the corporation to discuss all aspects of the proposed project with the community. The corporation may be reluctant and you may need to insist. Begin by establishing how the dialogue will proceed, and by determining what background information will be readily available to all the participants. Set agendas together. Perhaps it would be a good idea to alternate chairing the discussions between the corporation and the community. You should be prepared to provide an explanation of the organizational structure of the community and who its leaders are. Ask the corporation to supply an organization chart with the local representatives identified on the chart. This will be important when it comes to making decisions and to ensuring that information is passed to the correct people.

The corporation will expect the community to provide a continually updated list of contacts, resource people and their experience. The corporation will want to know the long-range goals of the community. You should find out if there are possibilities for joint ventures with the corporation. The corporation may want to understand the social and economic makeup of the community as a prelude to undertaking a socioeconomic impact assessment. It will use this information in its predictions of social, cultural, and economic impact. Discuss carefully how this is to be done, and who will be doing it. It will expect the community to define what it wants from the project. This is not a small task to define. Resist the temptation to limit your expectations to money; there are often far more important cultural and social issues and safeguards to be negotiated.

Indigenous Guideline #10:
Don't Be Outmanoeuvred
Resist Unreasonable Demands
Corporations sometimes make unreasonable demands because they do not understand indigenous people and the way they carry out their daily lives. The second reason derives from business thinking to take advantage of a situation for their benefit at your expense. Teaching people they are behaving badly when they are intending to behave properly is fraught with many conflicts, hurt feelings, and cultural offences. Not only that, but people have trouble understanding that their way is not necessarily the best way. The best way to deal with both of these sources of unreasonable demands is to insist politely on what is reasonable. It is useful to know if you are dealing with a misguided honest person, or a deliberately dishonest person, but in the end only insistence on what is correct will win the day. Be prepared to go through legal channels to establish and to insist on what is reasonable, especially if you are facing a dishonest situation.

Too Little Time Can Lead to Poor Decisions
Having sufficient time for the local community to come to appropriate decisions is almost always a big problem. Corporations are in a hurry. Time costs money. Be wary if the project seems to demand too many meetings in too short a time frame. People will be unable to stand the pace and digest the information. Beware of requests for original research in which the corporation wants to impose unreasonably rapid time frames.

Insist on Meaningful Consultation
Be very careful that so called "consultation"with the community is not really just a process of "informing"the community. You need to have opportunities for meaningful feedback and monitoring on the basis of actions taken by the community. Do not accept being informed rather than being involved or consulted. Sometimes this requires going over the head of the person who has been assigned by the corporation to interact with the community. In large projects, it is rare for the local community to meet or even correspond with people who make the big decisions. Often the local representative is just a messenger. It is not easy to suggest means that will work in every situation, but a simple request to meet the representative's supervisor can start the process that will get you to the decision-maker. If this does not work, you will have to resort to finding out who the decision-makers are, and calling them directly, or if possible, visiting them by appointment. If this fails, the situation is likely to be a difficult negotiation. This may force you to fall back on legal approaches or using the media to gather public attention and force a high-level negotiation.

Do Not Allow Anyone to Undermine the Credibility of Traditional Knowledge
Increasingly, environmental assessments require that traditional knowledge be included in the assessment or impact statements. This is a wonderful development from the perspective of indigenous people, but it is currently a problem for corporations and regulatory bodies because they do not know how to deal with the requirement. Often the corporation or regulatory body attempts to undermine the credibility of traditional knowledge so that the weight given to the findings by indigenous people is less than that derived from science. The corporation or regulatory agency may demand ridiculously simplified traditional knowledge to conform to business standards. Alternatively, they may demand "proof" that traditional knowledge is useful, or that it will augment science to save time and money.

Do Not Accept a Disregard for Community Standards
A corporation's cavalier disregard for community standards does not augur well for healthy long-term relationships. The most common ways in which this disregard is encountered include 1) a corporation consistently setting aside local practices, such as traditional hunting times or sacred ceremonies, to suit its project schedule, 2) corporate actions departing significantly from community expectations following agreed plans or decisions, 3) Discrepancies or misrepresentations that are dismissed as of trivial importance, and 4) corporation employees who routinely show disrespect for women, children, elders, and the cultural mores of the community. You will need to clearly identify and prohibit these unacceptable behaviour patterns.

Insist on Open Door Negotiations Including Indigenous People
Occasionally, corporations will carry out closed door, or private negotiations in key areas while excluding community representatives. This often happens during government-to-corporation negotiations in which permits, regulations, or licenses are set out. Such decisions are disrespectful of the community. Finally, one completely dishonest stratagem is to establish great financial benefits for a few key decision-makers in the community so they can be manipulated to make inappropriate decisions at the expense of the community and for the benefit of the corporation. The community will need to be very firm with these situations.

Indigenous Guideline #11:
Inform and Involve Nearby Communities
Define Direct Effects
There are legal and moral obligations that attend a development project that has an impact on the environment beyond the confines of the area directly controlled by the project. For example, riparian rights of downstream communities must be preserved. Altering a migration route, or changing the nature of the surrounding ecosystems may be unacceptable consequences for the nearby communities. Economic spin-off, cultural erosion, social difficulties as a result of introduced drugs, alcohol or diseases are all potential problems that nearby communities may claim are your responsibility. Be certain to have legal means to hold the corporation responsible for any negative impacts on the nearby communities.

Define Indirect Effects
Both communities and corporations may be legally responsible for indirect effects as well as the more obvious direct effects. For instance, harm may be done inadvertently by sharing traditional knowledge that the other communities would prefer to be kept confidential. Financial benefit based on support services required by the community or corporation hosting the project may cause problems in the long-run. If the financial benefit modifies the life-style of the second community away from traditional, but is too small to support the complete transition to a market economy, the community will have been damaged and may feel it has some right to compensation. Whenever this is a possibility, carry out a joint assessment of the situation to map out a community business plan.

If You Are the Neighbour, Become Informed
If you are a community neighbouring the project, try to determine how to predict or identify threats to your environment from other areas. As always, this is best done in a manner that shares information amongst the neighbouring communities.

Indigenous Guideline #12:
Communicate Directly with Government Agencies
Do Not Rely on Second-Hand Information - Go to the Source
Being well-informed is important. Don't rely entirely on information handed to you by project managers, or third party contractors. Government agencies always have people in them with lots of time to talk about regulations and procedures. It may take a number of telephone calls or personal visits to find the person who knows what you need to know, but they do exist. They may not be prepared to discuss your particular problem, but often they will talk in general terms about it with you. Seek membership in national and international groups with special interests in environmental problems and indigenous people to speed the transfer of expert knowledge. The IUCN, for instance is an excellent source of information and assistance about indigenous rights and about the environment, and has representatives in virtually every country.

Get a complete picture of how the environmental assessment process is to be carried out from the government agency responsible. Be sure you assign someone in the community to become well versed in the policies and practices normally called for in these assessments. If there is legislation governing assessments, find it and have it at hand all the time.

Use International and National Protocols
Political pressure is very difficult to deal with because it will usually be camouflaged or covert. To prevent inappropriate process, use international protocols and conventions. They carry great political weight in some countries. Sometimes the most effective way to deal with such a situation is to bring it out into the open through the press. This approach, however, has some significant danger attached to it, so use it only in extreme situations.

As in all complicated situations, assume the unexpected will occur, and be prepared to be flexible. In fact, in many cases, the unexpected can provide new opportunities if you work with the changes in plans in an innovative manner.