E/CN.4/2003/90 page 9 continues, due to so-called development projects such as mining, logging, oil exploration, privatization of our territories, and tourism”.14 The Kickapoo Nation in Oklahoma, United States of America, is now struggling to maintain their very existence and the health of their land and water resources due to an impending superhighway from Canada to Mexico. It was reported that in Ecuador, oil activities are being undertaken which result in the break-up of the traditional cultural and political structures of indigenous communities while facilitating the integration or assimilation of the oil economy in the country.15 In Japan, the building of a hydroelectric power dam in Nibutani, land sacred to the Ainu people, caused the destruction of traditional agriculture and the submergence of their sacred ceremonial sites. It further disrupted the links between the elders and the young as poverty forced families to sell their lands to the Government, which created divisions in the community.16 21. Serious issues regarding the non-recognition of, and failure to respect, the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples have been reported in Suriname. Indigenous and tribal peoples (Maroons), who together number about 75,000 persons, or about 14 per cent of the total population, occupy the forested areas of the “interior” and suffer various types of discrimination in the national society. The Government’s report to the World Summit on Social Development recognizes these peoples as stakeholders in natural resource exploitation in their traditional lands, but concedes that their participation in decision-taking on those issues “needs to be improved”. Legally, the land they occupy is owned by the State, which can issue land property grants to private owners. Indigenous and tribal lands, territories and resources are not recognized in law. Various indigenous and Maroon communities have been affected by mining (gold and bauxite) and logging activities carried out by national and foreign companies, without their prior consent or participation. As a result, numerous villages have had to relocate against their will and their environment has been disturbed, disrupting their traditional subsistence economy, their health, their social organization and their culture. Despite petitions to the national Government and the Inter-American system of protection of human rights (Commission and Court), the indigenous and Maroon communities have not received the protection they require.17 22. The Bakun Dam in Malaysia is reported to cause the forced displacement of 5,000-8,000 indigenous persons from 15 communities by clear-cutting 80,000 hectares of rainforest.18 Indigenous peoples in Manipur, India, were reported to suffer a similar fate caused by the building of 25 hydroelectric dams.19 Thousands of families of the Santhal Adivasi people in the Jharkhand province of India have reportedly been displaced as a result of extraction of minerals without proper compensation or economic security.20 In Thailand, several highland communities including the Karen people have reportedly been moved out of national parks against their will,21 whereas tourist development in Hawaii resulted in the displacement of indigenous people and their increasing poverty.22 Asian indigenous representatives expressed to the WGIP that “… conflict and development interventions had resulted in large-scale displacements, internal and external, and serious consequences for [indigenous] children and youth resulted from the implementation of inappropriate and non-consultative development projects”.23 23. African indigenous peoples are no exception when it comes to displacement from their traditionally owned lands. The creation of national parks or game reserves has forced people off their land. The Boran of Kenya, for instance, testified that four reserves created in Isiolo had