STOCKHOLM (IDN) \u2013 Indigenous peoples are all but invisible on the development agenda but a hoped for change is on the cards with the launch of the world\u2019s first and only funding institution to support the efforts of local and native communities to secure rights over their lands and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInclude us, so that we can protect our lands for our children and protect the planet\u2019s biodiversity for all the world\u2019s children,\u201d said by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples during the launch. Recognising the land rights of native and traditional peoples is a low-cost solution toward achieving the world\u2019s development, environment and climate agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known as the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, the new institution dedicated to scaling up the recognition of collective land and forest rights was officially presented on October 3 during a conference in Stockholm organised by the Swedish government, the Ford Foundation and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI(link is external)<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most indigenous people, \u201cland is everything,\u201d continued Tauli-Corpuz. Having secure rights over their lands ensures that \u201cthey can feed their families and practise their culture and traditional knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost 2.5 billion people, one-third of the world\u2019s population, depend on community-held lands for their livelihoods. They manage more than half the planet\u2019s land area in traditional systems, yet indigenous peoples and local communities have formal legal ownership of only 10% of the world\u2019s lands, according to a 2015 RRI report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Tenure Facility will invest 10 million dollars a year for the next decade in titling projects. This funding could increase titled, protected tropical forestland by 40 million hectares, preventing the emission of more than 0.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will work with indigenous and community leaders to take advantage of laws that are already on the books to strengthen their rights, said RRI coordinator Andy White, stressing that the Tenure Facility is aligned with the United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs(link is external)<\/a>) and the Paris Agreement(link is external)<\/a> on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndigenous peoples have cared for the forests for centuries, despite increasing pressure from governments and private interests that want access to the land and its soil, the timber in the trees and the minerals in the ground below,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Tenure Facility has kicked off with six pilot projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America covering two million hectares of forest in six countries \u2013 Cameroon, Indonesia, Liberia, Mali, Panama and Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tropical rainforest in Peru, which is part of the Amazon basin, is an interesting case in which more than half of the country\u2019s territory is forest, and much of that land is occupied by indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Bolivia, Peru is the South American country with the second highest proportion of indigenous population. Approximately 20 million hectares are pending titling in favour of indigenous people \u2013 corresponding to 15 percent of Peruvian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe cannot design public policies and conservation strategies without including the indigenous,\u201d Silvana Baldovino, programme director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, told IDN. \u201cWe cannot create rules inside a cabinet without speaking to the native peoples. It would be illogical to draw conservation policies without engaging who are actually on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baldovino was in Stockholm to talk about the successful Peruvian case of titling and managing forests. \u201cMadre de Dios has a large percentage of its region as protected natural areas. It is important for the indigenous peoples to have their land demarcated. It is a historic debt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tropical Madre de Dios region in the southeast part of Peru covers 800,000 hectares and is under constant pressure from illegal logging, gold mining and oil exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the region, there are seven indigenous peoples living in 36 communities. Many of these communities require legal and physical clarification of their territorial claims before they can secure their titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This first pilot project supported by the Tenure Facility helped to map five communities. Over 112,000 hectares were geo-referenced, enabling three communities to actually obtain the title of their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Securing tenure would also set the stage for more sustainable and equitable development, as well as reducing conflict over land, agrees Nonette Royo, the Tenure Facility\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe whole world is looking at the Amazon forest,\u201d she told IDN. \u201cAt the moment, the indigenous peoples are experiencing such a huge challenge: they occupy places where most of the forests are still growing and stand. They have protected these places for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n