Some Crucial Issues of Our Time

Abstract

In the U.S.A. and other advanced countries, tribal peoples, together with other minorities, receive protection, their land-rights are respected, and reparations are being made for past violations. In the Third World there may be protective laws but, in practice, these are commonly ignored because it is profitable to do so. As a result, there is nothing to stop the present world-wide destruction of the environment in undeveloped regions— particularly of tropical forest—and the accompanying sociocide. At present rates of destruction, pratically all existing natural tropical forests will have been cleared in 15–20 years' time, and catastrophic consequences are predicted. It is important to start using substitutes for raw materials emanating from forests—right now, while there still remain large forests and wild areas which can be saved. To aid this process it is proposed that a worldwide organization of timber producers should be formed along the lines of OPEC—to raise timber prices to true, i.e. replacement, costs—and that similar organizations should be formed for other raw materials. Such organizations could reduce environmental destruction without loss of income. Simultaneous with this, existing laws to protect tribal land-rights must be more vigorously enforced than hitherto, and new laws and institutions must be created where necessary to help slow the pace of destruction of tribal environments and societies.