Land and Cultural Survival: the Communal Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Asia examines the development of international and national laws, safeguards policies, and other mechanisms designed to protect and promote the interests of indigenous communities. It then looks at how successfully they have been applied in different settings, using case studies of various communities in the region.

One third of the world's poor are indigenous peoples and more than half of them live in Asia. Access to ancestral land and other natural resources is crucial to their survival but that access has become precarious in the face of development pressures, driven by industries, such as mining, forestry and plantation agriculture.

The book traces the rising global awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples and the broad array of actions taken to support their claims to communal land and resources. It points out the key role played by non-government organizations in giving a voice to indigenous groups. It also notes the importance of safeguards policies, adopted by ADB and other multilateral agencies, to ensure the interests and rights of indigenous communities particularly when development interventions directly affect their cultural space, identity and livelihood.

“This book, which involves inputs from a wide variety of experts on indigenous issues, makes a valuable contribution to understanding the identity, vulnerabilities and opportunities of indigenous groups in the region, and sounds a warning about the threats posed to their identity and way of life,” said Jayantha Perera, Principal Safeguards Specialist in ADB's South Asia Department, and the editor of the book.

Despite many mechanisms available to uphold the rights of indigenous communities, the book notes that too often such rights are ignored when they clash with state interests and business plans. Globalization and a growing appetite for natural resources have seen communal land taken from indigenous communities often without their consent. Pressure from conservationists on the use of ancestral land has also caused conflict.

The book argues that national laws pertaining to indigenous peoples should be further strengthened in order to protect their rights, and policy makers will have to consider ways of reconciling development demands with livelihood needs of vulnerable indigenous communities.#