Based on the experiences of Amerindian communities in Guyana, this briefing presents some of the main causes of forest conflicts in the country as well as recommendations for how to address these. In particular, the document presents the following points: 

• Lack of full recognition of indigenous peoples’ land rights in line with international law, absence of effective FPIC procedures and limited transparency in forest governance are key underlying causes of forest-related conflicts in Guyana; 

1. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, visited Brazil from 7 to 17 March 2016, at the invitation of the Government. The purpose of the visit was to identify and assess the main issues currently facing indigenous peoples in the country and to follow up on key recommendations made in 2009 by the previous mandate holder, following his visit to Brazil.

Since 2009, Oxfam and others have been raising the alarm about a great global land rush. Millions of hectares of land have been acquired by investors to meet rising demand for food and biofuels, or for speculation. This often happens at the expense of those who need the land most and are best placed to protect it: farmers, pastoralists, forest-dependent people, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples.

 

A new report offers evidence that the modest investments needed to secure land rights for indigenous communities will generate billions in returns—economically, socially and environmentally—for local communities and the world’s changing climate. The report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, quantifies for the first time the economic value of securing land rights for the communities who live in and protect forests, with a focus on Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia.

With deforestation and other land uses accounting for 11 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, the international community agrees on the need to address deforestation as an important component of climate change. Community forests represent a vital opportunity to curbing climate change that has been undervalued. Today communities have legal or official rights to at least 513 million hectares of forests, only about one eighth of the world’s total, comprising 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon.

In Burma, where 70 percent of people earn a living through agriculture, securing land is often equivalent to securing a livelihood. But instead of creating conditions for sustainable development, recent Burmese governments have enacted abusive laws, enforced poorly conceived policies, and encouraged corrupt land administration officials that have promoted the displacement of small-scale farmers and rural villagers.

The study’s findings offer the most compelling quantitative evidence to date of the unparalleled role that forest peoples have to play in climate change mitigation, reinforcing the critical importance of collective tenure security for the sustainable use and protection of the world’s tropical forests and the carbon they sequester.

This issue paper No. 6 of the Rangelands Series consolidates a set of case studies which document how pastoralists plan landvand resource use in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia. 

The Organising Committee of the Dutch Land Governance Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue has commissioned an investigation into the need and possibility to develop a protocol on fair compensation in cases of legitimate land tenure changes, with a focus on expropriation. This is in line with the Ministry’s role in the Land Governance Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue. This dialogue involves government, civil society, business, finance and academia.

Las mujeres de Yaguarú logran que la Central de Organizaciones de los Pueblos Indígenas Guarayos (COGNAG), les conceda 84 ha, para la producción de cusi. Significativo logro, por su participación activa en las marchas y movilizaciones, y por la negociación con las autoridades locales de Guarayos, muestra capacidad y autonomía para gestionar su territorio.

Se trata de un caso de restitución de territorios ancestrales, que reivindica el acceso a un territorio mayor al que el Estado republicano redujo en su división político administrativa. En su lucha por la consolidación territorial, la organización originaria genera mecanismos y consideraciones para garantizar el acceso a la tierra de sus comunidades, de las mujeres y las nuevas generaciones.

La comunidad ha gestionado y financiado la titulación de su territorio sin apoyo externo. Se trata de una empresa comunitaria con impactos económicos, sociales y ambientales dentro del Parque Nacional Madidi, lo cual es reconocido tanto en Bolivia como en el exterior del país, puesto que además se trata de la primera empresa de ecoturismo indígena, manejada por una comunidad entera.