The protection of cultural landscapes and indigenous heritage in international investment law

Indigenous cultural heritage plays an essential role in the building of the identity of indigenous peoples. Its protection thus has profound significance for their dignity and the realization of their human rights. Although the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights and cultural heritage has gained some momentum at the international law level since the adoption of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)2 and a number of indigenous cultural landscapes are now inscribed in the World Heritage List, the management of natural resources in traditional lands remains a contentious issue. Law and policy tend to favour macroeconomic notions of growth regardless of actual or potential infringement of indigenous entitlements (Barrera-Hernández, 2005, p1). Many of the estimated 370 million indigenous peoples around the world have lost, or are under imminent threat of losing, their ancestral lands, because of the exploitation of natural resources (Pillay, 2011).