The regulation of public and private investments in Indigenous land: an unsuccessful experience

In the context of the indigenous policy "Re-Know: social pact for multiculturalism" (2008) which set the agenda between the State and indigenous peoples until today, we carried out an unprecedented and insufficiently documented attempt to create a regulatory framework for public and private investment in indigenous lands. This failed experiment was called "Code of Responsible Conduct" and was strongly resisted by the establishment. The result was the resignation of the leading authorities on indigenous issues and, in the long run, the prosecution of investment projects and the absence of a public policy that, only years later, the state would try to address in a more complex context. The "Code of Responsible Conduct" aimed to become a legal instrument to regulate projects for public investment for voluntary private investment. The Code implied a process of compliance certification in order to certify an investment, the project holders had to show the existence of a management plan for the economic, social and cultural impacts in the affected indigenous communities. Projects that met those standards would be certified by an independent board.