Written by Wasiq Silan.
Image credit by the author.
Is going green hurting Indigenous communities? Not necessarily. However, exclusionary conservation measures create a lose-lose outcome for non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities. Indeed, Indigenous peoples’ full and substantial participation is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable future and halting the rapid loss of global biodiversity. This is true for the Indigenous communities in Taiwan, such as in the case of the solar panel controversy on the Katratripulr Pinuyumayan (Beinan in Mandarin Chinese) people’s traditional territory. Drawing from the experience of the Sámi, my recent participation in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) may shed light on this issue.
I am a Tayal researcher based in Finland. I started to attend the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues when I finished my Master’s and kicked start my doctoral research at the University of Helsinki. The experience of being part of the delegation of Indigenous peoples from Taiwan at the UN has been invaluable and gratifying, as it helped me to contextualise Indigenous issues on a global scale. It allowed me to collaborate with other researchers committed to a just sustainable transition. Together, we delve into how to strengthen health and well-being through Indigenous-led conservation and sustainable relationships with biodiversity. In this piece, I will share what going green means to the Sámi based on my participation in the UN and firsthand observations, such as through the SAMICARE project funded by the Norwegian Research Council that brings Taiwan and Norway together through the quality of life for ageing Indigenous people. By focusing on the tension between the Sámi and the renewable energy development project, I hope to provide a point of comparison for the Indigenous communities in Taiwan.
Who are the Sámi?
The Sámi are the only Indigenous people in the European Union. Sápmi, their traditional territory, was divided by the current national borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. There are between 80,000 to 100,000 Sámi people, with most of them living on the Norwegian side and approximately 8000 to 10,000 Sámi residing in Finland. The imposed national borders relocated the Sámi families and weakened local Sámi communities, making the impact steaming from forced relocation the topic of genuine truth and reconciliation.
Like the Indigenous peoples in Taiwan, the Sámi used to be stigmatised and silenced due to the assimilatory policies. Rampant hate speech against the Sámi communities has severely impacted their health and well-being. Fortunately, there has been a resurgence of Sámi identity, language, culture, and sovereignty in recent decades. In the realm of research, the Sámi has changed from the object of traditional disciplines to a more active role in knowledge production. Today, three Sámi parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland, together with the Sámi Council, are actively involved in a range of issues relating to the Sámi, including land, natural resource, and energy transition.
Indigenous Peoples, Sustainable Renewable Energy and the United Nations
Sustainable ecosystems, green transition, and renewable energy are critical worldwide topics. Indigenous peoples’ voices in such issues are getting increasingly crucial, both at the European Union level and the level of the United Nations. This year’s UNPFII is no exception. When discussing the agenda item on Convention on Biological Diversity, a representative from Denmark spoke on behalf of the Nordic states that Indigenous peoples should be treated better. She also emphasised that climate change has disproportionately impacted Indigenous ways of carrying on their traditional way of life and culture, so climate policies should allow Indigenous peoples’ fuller participation.
A few moments later, the representative from the Sámi Youth Association delivered a statement that gave a nuanced picture of what was happening. The representative pointed out that the Nordic states were avid proponents of sustainability but achieved it at the expense of Sámi Indigenous rights. The youth representative further stated that large-scale renewable energy development projects in Sámi territories completely disregard Sámi rights, emphasising that, ultimately, Nordic colonialism continues.
During the same week, the Sámi people from Finland, Sweden, and Norway united at parallel meetings to share their perspectives on how the Nordic Supreme Court responds to Sámi land and environmental rights. They specifically highlighted the landmark cases, e.g., Girja case in Sweden and the Fosen case in Norway, demonstrating how Indigenous peoples utilise legal mechanisms to negotiate with the state and assert renewable energy development in their terms.
Concerns over “green colonisation” have long troubled the Sámi people in the Nordic region. In this context, green colonisation refers to the Nordic governments using sustainable green governance as a pretext for encroaching upon and depriving Indigenous lands, primarily through wind power projects and mining projects for electric vehicle production and hydropower plant developments. The most well-known recent case is the Fosen, as mentioned above. It is located in the Fosen Peninsula in central Norway and hosts Europe’s largest onshore wind farm. Although completed in 2020, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled it illegal the following year, citing the wind farm’s infringement on Sámi Indigenous rights, making it an unprecedented progressive judgement.
Despite the ruling, Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy insists on finding a compromise to achieve a win-win solution, rather than dismantling the wind turbines. This has further sparked protests and discontent among the Sámi people. “This is a major land-grab done in the name of the green shift [transition],” said Áslak Holmberg, Chairman of the Sámi Council. “Where are we to turn to, when even when we win in court, we still lose? The state of Norway must be reminded to act immediately on this ruling, and stop overlooking its own judiciary and the Sámi people’s rights.” Similar accusations also exist in Sweden, where some Sámi reindeer herders boldly state that under the pretext of green sustainability, the Swedish government is essentially mortgaging future generations.
What Can Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan Learn from This?
The evidence above indicates that going green hurts the Sámi people; does this phenomenon apply to Taiwan? In Taiwan, Indigenous communities are encountering more and more green development projects. As green developments are emergent, it is hard to tell whether going green hurts Indigenous peoples in Taiwan at this stage. One interesting point can be drawn from comparing the Sámi case and the Katratripulr Pinuyumayan people.
When the Pinuyumayan people opposed the case, they scrutinised the flaws in the procedures for exercising the right to consultation and consent. However, when the Sámi people faced green colonisation, it seemed they opted to leverage decisions from their country’s highest court and international human rights mechanisms. Of course, they are aware of the principles of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Still, international law is dispensable when it comes to negotiations with the state.
As Øyvind Ravna, a Sámi legal professor and the principal investigator of the “Governance of Land and Natural Resources in Sápmi – a legal approach” (GoSápmi) study, shared with me after the side event that in the past, large-scale development projects entered Sámi communities without proper consultation or consent. Therefore, the collaboration between university researchers, the representatives from the Sámi Parliament, and civil society organisations on an international level is crucial. This may also explain why the Sámi people have effectively participated and organised within international human rights mechanisms.
Taiwan is transforming towards a green, digital, and resilient economy. The piece shows that the infringement of Indigenous rights to land and natural resources under the guise of green transformation may become increasingly common. Therefore, Taiwan needs to recognise the responsibility of transitional justice and thoroughly comply with its consultation procedure in line with the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law. Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and cosmology can offer alternative perspectives on a green and just transition amid the drastic changes climate change brings.
Wasiq Silan (as published under her name in Mandarin I-An Gao) is a Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. She is a Tayal woman from the Mstaranan known as the Nanshi River valley in the northern region of Taiwan.
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