Natural resources and collective rights | Indigenous Peoples

Secure land tenure rights are of paramount importance for Indigenous Peoples. Without these rights and the access to their traditional lands, Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems, cultures and cosmogonies are at risk of disappearance.

FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit works to strengthen Indigenous Peoples’ capacities towards the recognition and protection of their tenure rights and customary tenure systems. In doing so, FAO partners with different Indigenous Peoples’ organisations and with the FAO tenure team, using the Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (VGGT) and the Small-Scale Artisanal Fisheries guidelines as key tools.

Currently, the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ food systems is working on a collective paper on the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ mobility, nomadism, transhumance and collective rights for biodiversity conservation, which will provide evidence and contribute to the debate on the importance of land tenure rights for Indigenous Peoples.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (VGGT) call upon states to recognize and protect the legitimate tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and to consider adapting their policies and legal and organizational frameworks to Indigenous Peoples’ tenure systems.