Indigenous land tenure insecurity fosters illegal logging in Nicaragua

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 850-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Finley-Brook
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Illegal Logging ◽  
Indigenous Land

Monitored Lives: Writing Indigenous Land Management and the State (Part One)

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
Jim Birckhead
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Contract Work ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Indigenous Land Management ◽  
Expert Input ◽  
Management Issues ◽  
Indigenous Land

Anthropologists in Australia are becoming increasingly involved in government contract work on Indigenous land tenure and management issues, most of which require some ‘expert’ input to help authenticate cultural identity and establish connection to ‘country’. In this paper I have reviewed some issues and themes drawn from my uneven and serendipitous work as an anthropologist. This work has been done as both an academic and practitioner, over the past couple of decades on Indigenous land tenure, hunting, management, and ranger training at this dynamic and contentious interface between Indigenous cultural processes and government agencies. My aim is to raise questions of both ethics and epistemology and to reflect on the work of the anthropologist in these domains, without attempting to systematically cover all of the possible issues.

The Terms of Our Surrender: Colonialism, Dispossession and the Resistance of the Innu

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Cassell
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Fiduciary Duty ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Natural Land ◽  
First Nations People ◽  
Indigenous Land

Based on extensive fieldwork and oral history, The Terms of Our Surrender is a powerful critical appraisal of unceded indigenous land ownership in eastern Canada. Set against an ethnographic, historical and legal framework, the book traces the myriad ways the Canadian state has successfully evaded the 1763 Royal Proclamation that guaranteed First Nations people a right to their land and way of life. Focusing on the Innu of Quebec and Labrador, whose land has been taken for resource extraction and development, the book strips back the fiduciary duty to its origins, challenging the inroads which have been made on the nature and extent of indigenous land tenure—arguing for preservation of land ownership and positioning First Nations people as natural land defenders amidst a devastating climate crisis. It offers a voice to the Innu people, detailing the spirituality practices, culture and values that make it impossible for them to willingly cede their land. The text is intended to bridge the gap in knowledge between legal practitioners and those working at the intersections of human rights, social work and public policy. The book offers a potent template for how we can use the law to fight back against the indignities suffered by all indigenous peoples.

scholarly journals The Concept of “Indigenous Land Tenure” Surfaces in Namibia: A Comparative Overview ‒ Agnes Kahimbi Kashela v Katima Mulilo Town Council (SA 15/2017) [2018] NASC 409 (16 November 2018)

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
George Barrie
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
The State ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
South West ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Communal Land ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Communal Lands ◽  
Indigenous Land

The facts in this case, which fell to be decided by the Supreme Court of Namibia in November 2018, can be succinctly put: in 1985, Ms Kashela’s late father was allocated a piece of land as part of communal land by the Mafwe Traditional Authority (MTA) in the Caprivi region of the then-South West Africa (now Namibia). In 1985, the Caprivi region fell under the then-South West Africa Administration. Following the independence of Namibia on 21 March 1990, all communal lands became property of the state of Namibia by virtue of section 124 of the Constitution of Namibia Act 1 of 1990, read with Schedule 5 of the Constitution. Paragraph (3) of Schedule 5 of the Constitution states that the afore-mentioned communal lands became property of the state “subject to any existing right, charge, obligation or trust existing on or over such property”.

scholarly journals Law, land, development and narrative: a case-study from the South Pacific

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Farran
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Indigenous Land Rights ◽  
Indigenous Land

This article explores a primary source of legal studies, case-law, as a form of narrative in the context of indigenous land rights, and considers how this narrative negotiates pre-colonial land claims in a post-colonial context. Its case-study is the South Pacific island country of Vanuatu, a small-island, least-developed, nation-state, where laws introduced under Anglo–French colonial administration are still retained and sit uneasily alongside the customary forms of land tenure which govern ninety percent of all land in the islands. The article looks at the traditional and changing role of narrative presented as evidence by claimants and their witnesses against a context of rapid social and economic change, and asks whether the metamorphosis of narrative signals the future survival or imminent demise of customary indigenous land rights and what that might mean for these island people faced by the pressures of development.

Dilemmas of an Expert Witness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Short Term ◽  
First Case ◽  
Indigenous Land

This chapter presents two affidavits submitted to the Inter-American Court. The first case was concerned with the negative consequences of Suriname’s refusal to recognize indigenous land rights, including the establishment of a nature reserve that become a de facto open-access zone on indigenous land. The second addressed problems associated with indigenous land tenure in Guyana under the Amerindian Act of 2006. Comparing the two cases allows the chapter to make several observations about the dynamics of short-term ethnographic research conducted for expert-witness reports. This includes the need to make affidavits legible to the three overlapping frames of the legal system, the communities seeking recognition of their rights, and anthropology. The chapter also considers the narrative choices in these affidavits, the political dilemmas of being an expert witness, and the compromises of short-term ethnography.

scholarly journals Discourses of FLEGT and REDD + Regimes in Cameroon: A Nongovernmental Organization and International Development Agency Perspectives

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Mbatu
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Illegal Logging ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Environmental Negotiations ◽  
Critical Issues

This paper applies the international environmental negotiations framework (IENF) and the multiple streams framework (MSF) to analyze the influence of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and International Development Agencies (IDAs) in the development and implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade agreement (FLEGT) and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) regimes in Cameroon. Deforestation, forest degradation, and illegal logging are critical issues in forest management in many forest-rich countries around the world. In attempt to curtail illegal logging, global forest governance in the past few years has witnessed the development of a number of timber legality regimes including FLEGT. In the same light, the international community has recently seen the emergence of the REDD+ regime to fight against global warming and climate change. Based on sixty-eight interviews in Cameroon with representatives of NGOs and IDAs, government officials, the timber industry, and members of forest communities, as well as eleven informal conversations, and more than sixty documents, the paper finds that NGO and IDA influence on the FLEGT and REDD+ regimes in Cameroon has been growing in three areas: stakeholder participation, project development, and institutional development. Thus, the increasing influence of NGOs and IDAs will pave the way for future interventions on social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues, including land tenure, carbon rights, benefit distribution, equity, Free, Prior and Informed consent, legality, and stakeholder process, related to the FLEGT and REDD+ regimes in Cameroon.

Carbon projects and Indigenous land in northern Australia

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Dore ◽  
Christine Michael ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Maureen Tehan ◽  
Lisa Caripis
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Emissions Reduction ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Indigenous Land

Land activities contribute ~18% of total greenhouse gas emissions produced in Australia. To help reduce these emissions, the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) was implemented in 2011 to encourage land projects, which reduce the production of greenhouse gases and/or sequester carbon in the land. Prospective projects include savanna fire management and rangelands management, which have high relevance in northern Australia where Indigenous landholding is strong. This paper explores the land-tenure requirements necessary for these kinds of carbon projects to be approved by the Clean Energy Regulator. It provides an introduction to the CFI before discussing the land tenure requirements in the states of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia with respect to both emissions reduction and carbon sequestration projects. Potential issues with the current framework are highlighted, especially in relation to native title.

Multi-Scale Dimensions of Indigenous Land Tenure in the Amazon

Human Ecology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew E. Bennett ◽  
Rodrigo Sierra
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Indigenous Land

Encountering Indigenous Law in Canada

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Thom
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Coast Salish ◽  
Indigenous Law ◽  
Land Title ◽  
Legal Discourses ◽  
Indigenous Land

This chapter reflects on the work happening at the intersection of anthropology and law in Canada with respect to Indigenous peoples’ rights, title, governance, and legal orders. Indigenous legal scholars have ignited an important new engagement with Indigenous legal orders that are reshaping mainstream Canadian legal discourses. The chapter reviews how this work has profound implications for the direction of the recognition of Indigenous land title, territorial rights, and Indigenous jurisdictions. It argues that anthropologists have the opportunity to shift their engagement with Indigenous law from essentialized production of traditional cultures to ethnographically engaging with the logics and practices of Indigenous legal orders. The chapter develops a brief ethnographic case-study involving several closely related Island Hul’q’umi’num’ (Coast Salish) communities on the east coast of Vancouver Island (British Columbia) as they work to mobilize longstanding Indigenous principles and understandings of land tenure and harvest rights among themselves in a complex, state-regulated environment of shellfish harvesting. The purpose of the case-study is to highlight a path of anthropological engagement with contemporary Indigenous law, working both to appreciate the ways Indigenous and state legal orders are brought to life concurrently over time, and to reflect on the on-the-ground ways legal pluralism is experienced. The case also offers conceptual opportunities to transcend problematic state discourses of ‘overlapping claims’ and makes space for workable principles of co-existence through Indigenous legal sensibility.

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