This toolkit gathers together information on eight tools that have been successfully used by members of the International Land Coalition (ILC) to recognise and protect the diverse tenure and production systems upon which people’s livelihoods depend. It is intended to facilitate mutual learning based on the good practices of specific ILC members.
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1) COMMUNITY-BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OF PASTURELANDS
Community-based natural resource management is a statute-based tool for the management of natural resources, which allows for the formation of Pasture Users’ Unions (PUUs) consisting of local herder communities. PUUs assist community herders to enter into agreements for seasonal use and management of pasturelands. Through the tool, pasture users and communities participate and directly manage local areas, learn new approaches, and adopt best practices in rotational, effective, and planned pasture usage.
2) LEGAL AND PSYCHO-LEGAL COUNSELLING
Pyscho-legal intervention includes counselling victims of human rights abuses and physical assault during land dispossession, and their reintegration into local communities. It is used to increase victims’ awareness of their land rights (proactive component) and to enable them to defend their rights in the face of unlawful claims (reactive component). The legal counselling empowers local communities to use the judicial system to assert their land rights.
3) STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNITY-LED RETURN OF LAND
This tool supports local NGOs in enforcing the land rights and diverse tenure systems of local communities against systematised unfair land dispossession. It gives NGOs and local communities strategies to claim land lost during colonialism, and to manage it for the benefit of the entire community.
4) CAMPAIGN TO TACKLE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF COMMONS
Local communities mobilise themselves to raise awareness about illegal occupation of grazing commons. The ultimate purpose is to influence governments and private land owners to respect and protect the collective land rights of pastoralists, and for the government to intervene and issue land titles to local pastoralist communities.
5) COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT OF COMMON LAND
Community management of common land is initiated through the formation of a pastureland management committee, consisting of all village households, whose task is to facilitate the restoration of the commons. This includes the development of land and watersheds and community management of pasturelands. The committee also facilitates the development of rules for access, use, and management of the pastures and of security measures ensuring equitable and equal access to water and fodder.
6) PARTICIPATORY LAND REGULARISATION
A participatory land regularisation process starting with community-led, mutually beneficial commercial activities assists previously conflicting communities to work together to resolve their land conflicts. The communities engage in dialogue and agree to work together to enhance the productive quality of their common land resources in order to increase mutual benefits from the land. Through agreement, the conflicting communities agree to regularise their land rights for their mutual benefit.
7) HARMONISATION OF LAND MAPPING METHODOLOGIES
The tool aims to create a harmonised participatory land mapping methodology that is generally accepted and is used to map lands belonging to communities with diverse, conflicting, and often traditional land tenure systems. The maps are then used by communities to claim their land rights.
8) COMMUNITY–GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE RECOGNITION OF CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE SYSTEMS
Community–government engagement strategies aim to create the necessary capacity within communities for the protection of indigenous peoples’ community land rights.
how to use the toolkit?
Each section describes the characteristics of the tool: its goal, actors involved, the ILC members that have used it, the expected outcomes of the tool’s use, and a step-by- step practical guide to implementation. The stories at the end of each section summarise aspects of good practice connected with the tool’s use by one or more ILC members and partners. Tools can be adapted to different contexts or needs. By using the available links, it is possible to access more information about each tool and to get in touch with ILC members that have used it.
ILC Toolkit #5: Indigenous Peoples and communities land rights
26 April 2018
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