I wrote these Guidelines to help draw together the wisdom of different perspectives about the world around us so that development projects have an improved capacity to be carried out to the benefit of all who are affected by them.

The ultimate aim of the Guidelines is to help develop a framework within which affected indigenous peoples can expect to receive information that will allow them to choose, on an appropriate collective basis through free and prior informed consent, whether a development project should go ahead. In the event they choose to have it go ahead, that they are offered the opportunity to participate in the planning and implementation of the project, using their traditional knowledge systems to help guide the decisions that will affect their future, and that the use of that knowledge and their participation is handled with respect, trust, equity and empowerment.

Modern advances in fields of high intensity agriculture, mining and oil and gas extraction, increasingly complex technology, planet-wide communication, and the geometric increase in human populations have placed an amazing diversity of cultures and ethnicity immediately in touch with each other.

Over the last five hundred years, the global expansion of populations has resulted in the exploration and conquest or colonization of almost the entire planet. Very few places in the world today, are governed by the indigenous peoples who have been there since before historical records began.

Thus, for historical reasons, many indigenous peoples, although certainly not all, find themselves in a complex world that is not always able to understand their values, their normal life style, or their way of perceiving the world. In some cases, the transition from traditional indigenous life styles to western styles has been effective and beneficial, but in many, if not most cases, the indigenous peoples have not benefited as fully as they might have.

The knowledge systems of indigenous peoples are quite varied around the world, but there are consistent patterns in the way the knowledge is acquired and in the nature of the content of indigenous knowledge systems. Although indigenous knowledge systems are quite different from western, science-based knowledge systems, they can often complement science. To give but two examples: indigenous knowledge is intensely local in its factual information, whereas science usually has general, not local information, and therefore must carry out new studies to gain local information; science generally has a short-term base of information that it can use, whereas indigenous knowledge can draw on a very long-term information base. Thus, there is a great advantage to using the two knowledge systems together.

The Guidelines address the questions and issues that govern how working together can be accomplished while respecting the perceived rights of everyone concerned.

In writing these Guidelines, I have taken the position that when dealing with human lives and their support systems, it is important to begin with the assumption of individual human rights -- the panoply of collective rights flows properly from this base. I have also taken the position that indigenous peoples should be afforded certain rights that are a result of their long history in the area. Thus, traditional rights to resources including ancestral domains, self-governance, self-determination (or autonomy), cultural integrity, and social justice are fundamental to framing the guidelines. At the same time it is important for every stakeholder to recognize that national laws and policies should be able to accommodate the traditional laws, cultural diversity, and oral traditions. At least at this writing, I know of no country in which this has been completely and successfully implemented.

Increasingly, indigenous communities are being included in the discussion periods that precede the implementation of development projects, but this is a relatively recent trend. The Guidelines take the position, and offer advice on how to provide for the indigenous peoples' desire that their collective right to choose whether a development project is implemented should be based on "free and informed prior consent." This is not always a simple task, and advice is offered on how to form or recognize appropriate representation of the indigenous communities, as well as how to know what is credible traditional knowledge and what is not.

The Guidelines do not make the assumption that indigenous knowledge or practices are superior to other systems of knowledge or practices. Neither do the Guidelines assume that western knowledge or practice is superior to traditional knowledge. Instead, the Guidelines recognize that both systems have strengths that can help the other system when they are invited to work together.

Finally, the Guidelines provide a way to help strike a rational balance between the protection of the environment, culture, and socioeconomic well-being of the indigenous communities and the changes that necessarily come during the course of project development. The specific advice recognizes that enormous opportunities are potentially available to indigenous communities, but it also recognizes that the risks can be equally great. Historical, and some, although definitely not all, current proponent and government practices have lead to development projects that did not benefit the indigenous communities they affected. In part, the Guidelines seek to correct that pattern.

Alan R. Emery, February, 2000