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How much should we strive to protect indigenous peoples from habitat encroachment?

Asked by Earthgirl (11214points) November 16th, 2011

Is it even possible?
What do lose if we do not.?
If we do need to remove them from their ancestral homelands what can and should be done to ease the transition?

I am thunking in particular of the case of the Mbuti Pygmies in the Congo. For thousands of years they have lived in the Ituri rainforest. Now it has been made into a park and they are being removed to refugee camps. They are fighting for access to education and healthcare. They have protested at the UN that they were victims of genocide during the recent civil war.

It seems inevitable that any remaining indigenous people will slowly have to acclimate to society and become mainstreamed into the prevailing culture. It’s like the writing is on the wall. In the process they stand to lose not only their way of life but their culture as well. All that will be left of their culture is a tribal memory and a bunch of museum relics.

I think that is sad. Is it inevitable in all but the remotest regions? Will the whole world become like a Disney theme park where we can see some sanitized version of what used to be real life?

In this case it is quite complicated because of the Pygmies sale of bushmeat which endangers the animals in the rainforest. Even the Pygmies are not immune to the profit motive. This has disrupted the balance between man and nature they formerly had.
I know this is a long question! Feel free to answer all or part of my questions. I am just curious about how other people view this. Thanks!

Here are some of the links for articles I read on this:
http://tribaltrustfoundation.org/
http://peacefulsocieties.org/Society/Mbuti.html
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-28/local/me-5539_1_killer-bees
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/feature5/index.html

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