A Assembléia Geral, Tomando nota da recomendação que figura na resolução 1/2 do Conselho dos Direitos Humanos, de 29 de junho de 2006, na qual o Conselho aprovou o texto da Declaração das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos dos Povos Indígenas, Recordando sua resolução 61/178, de 20 de dezembro de 2006, em que decidiu adiar o exame e a adoção de medidas sobre a Declaração a fim de dispor de mais tempo para seguir realizando consultas a respeito, e decidiu também concluir o exame da Declaração antes de que terminasse o sexagésimo-primeiro período de sessões, Aprova a Declaração das Nações Unidas

Compreender a questão agrária sob o modo capitalista de produção sempre foi tarefa difícil e complicada. Não porque muitos autores não a tenham praticamente esgotada, mas porque os estudos mais trazem discordâncias do que convergência. Por isso, esta temática cria atritos entre os conservadores e os progressistas, entre os socialistas e os comunistas, e entre todos eles e os anarquistas. Não há possibilidade nenhuma de consenso ou mesmo de aproximações. Sempre haverá pressupostos que se interporão abrindo espaço para a polêmica e discussões.

O tema do mercado de terras integra a agenda contemporânea das políticas agrárias, tanto no Brasil como em outros países. No caso brasileiro, decorre da história de ocupação do território e da própria formação social e econômica que produziram um quadro de ilegalidade, de instabilidade jurídica e de fragilidade institucional. A expansão da fronteira agrícola com base no agronegócio patronal, em especial na cultura da soja na região da Amazônia Legal, combinada com as ações de reforma agrária, ampliam a importância deste tema e seus impactos sobre a economia e a sociedade.

In the Mekong region, conflicts between local communities and large scale land concessions are widespread. They are often difficult to solve. In Cambodia, an innovative approach to conflict resolution was tested in a case involving a private company, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), and several indigenous communities who lost some of their customary lands and forests when the company obtained a concession to grow rubber in the Province of Ratanakiri. The approach was developed by CSOs Equitable Cambodia (EC) and Inclusive Development International (IDI) with the support of QDF funding from MRLG.

The world is increasingly encroaching on indigenous peoples’ traditional lands. Around the globe, indigenous communities are forced to cede ground to state development, corporate land grabs, rising sea levels, environmental degradation, and population growth. The right to land provides the basis for access to food, housing, and development. But for indigenous peoples, traditional lands are more than this; they represent essential ties to their ancestors, their culture, and their languages. Losing their land means losing their way of life.

Large-scale land acquisitions have increased in scale and pace due to changes in commodity markets, agricultural investment strategies, land prices, and a range of other policy and market forces. The areas most affected are the global “commons” – lands that local people traditionally use collectively — including much of the world’s forests, wetlands, and rangelands. In some cases land acquisition occurs with environmental objectives in sight – including the setting aside of land as protected areas for biodiversity conservation.

This report provides a synthesis of three country level case studies (Namibia, Senegal, Kenya) carried out in African countries as a part of the overall legal review of Indigenous People’s and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs). This regional synthesis report also incorporates information and material from other African countries’ experiences with ICCAs, as documented in a range of other studies and publications.

Across the world, areas with high or important biodiversity are often located within Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ conserved territories and areas (ICCAs). Traditional and contemporary systems of stewardship embedded within cultural practices enable the conservation, restoration and connectivity of ecosystems, habitats, and specific species in accordance with indigenous and local worldviews. In spite of the benefits ICCAs have for maintaining the integrity of ecosystems, cultures and human wellbeing, they are under increasing threat.

In this publication two pioneering grassroots organisations from northern Tanzania examine and present their experiences and insights from their long-term work to secure the land rights of hunter-gatherer and pastoral communities. The case studies were presented at a one-day learning event held on 5th October 2012, when Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) and Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) joined together to share and reflect on their work to secure land rights, to learn from each other, and to identify ways to build on their achievements moving forward.

Pastoralist and hunter-gatherer communities in Tanzania are gaining rights to own and control their land as the foundation for generating new income through REDD+ 

Through a range of local initiatives and collaborations developed over the past 15 years, Tanzania’s Yaeda Valley, the primary remaining home territory for the last community of Hadzabe hunter-gatherers, has become a model for community-based conservation. 

The increasing importance of the Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in Tanzania, where 17 WMAs are now functioning and 22 others are in various stages of development, begs the question of what successes have been achieved and what challenges remain to be addressed if this Community-Based Conservation model is to be sustained and even scaled up. There has not been a country-wide evaluation of WMAs since the pilot-phase evaluation in 2007 at a time when most WMAs were too new to yield firm projections for the long term.