In Brazil, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities face unprecedented threats to their hard-won territorial and constitutional rights.
What happens to community lands a millennium on? A look at Europe.
By Liz Alden Wily and Fabrice Dubertret, Members of the LandMark Operations Team.
Do community-held lands thrive today in Europe? If so, what can communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America learn from their long experiences? This was the topic of a Practitioner Lab hosted by LandMark : the Global Platform of Indigenous and Community Lands at the XVI biennial conference of the International Association for Study of the Commons held in Utrecht on the 10th of July. A panel of four experts from Europe (Monica Vasile, Romania; Evelyn Dietsche, Germany; Rita Serra, Portugal; and Pedro Medrano, Spain) helped participants understand the realities of commons in their countries today. Pedro Medrano represented the Soria Forest Association of Spain, winner of the Elinor Ostrom Practitioner Award 2017.
Historic New Law Secures Land for Malian Farmers
Farmers in Mali have gained critical new rights to their traditional land—and rural communities have gained much-needed economic stability—as a result of a historic new law.
Land-rights policies in Latin America still fall short, studies show
Scientists present their findings on forest tenure and land use at a major conference in Peru
Peru - Latin American countries have made progress in granting land rights to communities in recent years. Nevertheless, policies often fail to consider the diversity of those communities and the different ways they use their land.
Eight reasons why tribal people are great conservationists
By Lewis Evans, Survival International
For Earth Day (April 22), Survival International reveals some of the amazing ways in which tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world:
1. The Baka “Pygmies” have over 15 words for elephant
The Baka people know so much about elephants, they have different words for them according to their sex, age and even temperament.
Ten Signs of an Impending Global Land Rights Revolution
By Chris Jochnick, President and CEO of Landesa
The development community has experienced various “revolutions” over the years – from microfinance to women’s rights, from the green revolution to sustainable development. Each of these awakenings has improved our understanding of the challenges we face; each has transformed the development landscape, mostly for the better.