O ‘marco temporal da ocupação’ é uma argumentação insustentável e racista que ignora completamente as perseguições, violências e massacres sofridos por milhares de comunidades indígenas e quilombolas desde o período colonial, trazendo insegurança jurídica e social a estes povos.

The Santa Clara de Uchunya community has lived in a remote section of the Peruvian Amazon for generations. Like many indigenous groups, this community of the Shipibo-Konibo people have traditionally managed and relied on forests for hunting, fishing and natural resources.

But in 2014, someone started cutting down large sections of the community’s ancestral forests.

Antes de sediar os prédios mais importantes de Brasília, a Esplanada dos Ministérios abrigava um campo aberto onde descendentes de escravos levavam bois para pastar. Eram moradores do Quilombo Mesquita, instalado na região desde o século 18 e que teve um papel importante – e pouco conhecido – na fundação da cidade.

Há um ano e meio, no dia 1º de janeiro de 2017, dezenas de famílias indígenas, que moravam antes na Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, MG – expulsas de seus territórios e sobrevivendo em diáspora forçada -, apoiadas pela Associação dos Povos Indígenas de Belo Horizonte e Região Metropolitana (APIBHRM), ocuparam parte de uma das três fazendas da FUCAM (Fundação Educacional Caio Martins), Fazenda Santa Tereza, no município de Esmeraldas, RMBH, fazenda de propriedade do Governo de Minas Gerais.

After years of efforts, land rights are finally getting global attention. With several land-related indicators included in the Sustainable Development Goals, the land sector now has the unique opportunity to create an unprecedented momentum around land tenure issues and bring it to a higher level on the development agenda. Our goal is, of course, to contribute to the success of the SDGs, but also to be part of sustainable development in its real and practical sense!

Much of the world’s rural landscapes are technically managed by national governments with limited recognition of, or support for, the rights and management responsibilities of the rural poor who live in these areas. In an era of large-scale land acquisitions for global commodity production, this has led, in some cases, to governments allocating vast tracts of land and resources to companies with limited or no consultation of the people affected.

For hundreds of years, pastoralists in Ethiopia’s lowlands have relied on strong customary land tenure systems to survive. Historically, legislation has failed to clearly define communal rights to rangelands, and the specific roles and responsibilities for both communities and local government to administer and manage these resources. This legislative deficiency prevented pastoral communities from fully exercising their constitutional rights to land (Ethiopia’s Constitution broadly recognizes pastoral communities’ right to access land and prevents their involuntary displacement).

Earlier this year, the outgoing President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf handed over power to George Weah in the country’s first peaceful and democratic transition of power since 1944. It was a moment that crystallized just how far Liberia had come in the last 13 years, since a 2005 peace agreement brought an end to over a decade of civil war, raising hopes internationally that the country remains on course towards lasting peace.

By Tim Hanstad, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor, Landesa

This is the second blog in a series of two that are based on a keynote address made at the 2018 India Land Development Conference.