1) What is meant by development ?
Or what do we mean when we use the concept of development ? What kind of development and for whom ? Who is developed and who is underdeveloped, and on what criteria are such statements based ? As for 'development projects', do they aim at making the state richer, at providing for one of the country's higher social classes, for foreign states or for local populations ? The idea of 'improving people's living conditions' seems more appropriate (though it does carry its own ambiguities and dangers).
2) An approach, ethics, rather than recipes
Each case has its own characteristics and universal projects are too general to be of much use. It is necessary to first assess local problems and elaborate programmes adapted to local scales.
3) The necessity for more research
Any intervention in the lives of indigenous populations is a delicate problem and can turn out to be disastrous from a human and ecological point of view. At present we are still elaborating and accumulating knowledge, rather than at a stage where we could apply the results of our research. Yet more work has to be carried out in order to define the legal context that applies to each case and to understand the population and their ecology so as to be able to produce new economic and ecological solutions.
However, this state of affairs must not make us forget that the situation of indigenous populations has become very precarious, and that the problem is an urgent one.