ABSTRACT
The World Bank’s experience indicates that involuntary resettlements under development projects oftentimes cause severe economic, social, and environmental risks including dismantlement of production systems; impoverishment; less applicable production skills and more intense competitions; weakening of community institutions and social networks; dispersal of kinship groups; undermining of cultural identity, traditional authority, and the potential for mutual help. In summary, the relocated people definitely suffer from loss of material as well as cultural resources. If resettlement was inevitable, according to the World Bank’s resettlement policies, resettlement alternatives should offer relocated people choices over forms of compensation and resettlement assistance and relocating scales such as individuals, families, or as parts of preexisting communities or kinship groups. These procedures aim to sustain existing patterns of group organization and to retain access to cultural property. 1 It implies that, in addition to material compensation, immaterial issues should be considered to protect the cultural rights of the relocated people.
