Washington (EFE).- Between 2015 and 2020, indigenous communities achieved legal recognition of more than 100 million hectares, which brought their lands to 11% of the world’s land surface, according to a study published by the Initiative for the Rights and Resources (RRI).
According to data from the study, the land legally recognized by governments increased in at least 39 countries during this period, after the continuous efforts of these communities.
Sub-Saharan Africa was the region that obtained the most land recognition since 2015, with an increase of 12% thanks to legal reforms in Kenya and Liberia, explained one of the authors of the report, Chloe Ginsburg, to EFE.
Ginsburg stressed that more than 1 billion acres of land owned and used by these peoples remains unrecognized.
Specifically, in 49 of the 73 countries studied there are 1,375 million hectares that still do not have legal recognition. Where populations face companies and investors who do not take their claims into account.
The indigenous peoples of Latin America
In the case of Latin America, although this region “leads” the recognition of indigenous peoples’ lands, it has gone through a period of stagnation. Due in large part to governments “reluctant to protect the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples,” Ginsburg said.
In this way, the land holdings of indigenous peoples in Latin America increased by less than 1% between 2015 and 2020.
Levi Sucre, indigenous leader of the Bribri people of Costa Rica, told EFE the concern of the communities about how their rights will evolve in the coming years, as they depend on “Governments that are going at a snail’s pace” in the recognition of lands.
“I cannot imagine how we are going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 with such slow growth,” Sucre alarmed.
In addition, the report points to the negative effects that the pandemic had on the recognition process, since “in many cases” the covid-19 crisis was used as a “pretext to reduce the civic space of civil society in the countries and communities’ access to information or participation,” Ginsburg said.
The pandemic
For his part, Sucre influenced the willingness of countries to reactivate their economies after the pandemic. Something that has led to the exploitation of natural resources such as minerals and oil in indigenous forests.
“There have always been land disputes and, with the intention of the governments to recover economically, the disputes are increasing much more with more violence,” said Sucre.
This indigenous leader fears that the recognition of lands will “go backwards” or simply “not advance”, because he does not expect governments to take positive steps.
According to the report, members of indigenous, Afro-descendant and local communities represent up to 2.5 billion people. In general, they own and use at least 50% of the land surface.
Implementation of existing laws could lead to obtaining community rights to 260 million hectares of land.