Rethinking sustainable development. Indigenous peoples and resource use relations in the Philippines

Abstract

In recent years, indigenous peoples have been the focus of interest in the sus tainable development agenda. This interest has been spurred by widespread advocacy of alternative models of development that strive for more social justice, equity and environmental protection. Made popular by the United Nations' World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in the late 1980s, the phrase 'sustainable development' was born of two signific ant concerns: recognition of seriously escalating environmental problems and an increased emphasis on community as the context of development. The phrase's populist appeal comes from its rhetoric: an unstable amalgam of populist thinking (participatory and community-based approach), struc tural and political focus (equitable access to resources and decision-making), the visibility of women and indigenous peoples, and environmentalism that is deeply anchored to ethics and moral principles (Escobar 1995). Sustainable development, as the new strategy, has a future orientation, since it professes protection of the rights of the unborn and their share in the benefits of present natural resources. Consequently, agriculture and rural development have generally emphazised these issues, hence the phrase 'sus tainable agriculture'. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in par ticular, has recognized that the world agriculture system will increasingly be confronted with environmental and sustainability questions. Such recogni tion has resulted in FAO's framework in assessing the prospects for world agriculture within the context of 'safeguarding the productive potential and broader environmental functions of agricultural resources for future genera tions, the very essence of sustainability, while satisfying food and other needs' (Alexandratos 1995:1). The essential conditions of sustainable development set by the WCED found a link with indigenous peoples. Sustainable development, with its pre cepts of ecological capitalization and community-based resource manage ment strategies, has an interpretation that is appealing to indigenous